July 05, 2021
Haunani-Kay Trask blazed trail for indigenous academics
The late Hawaiian academic and activist Haunani-Kay Trask is being hailed not just for her promotion of Hawaiian sovereignty but for her impact on the struggle for indigenous rights in the Pacific and around the world.
Professor Trask died yesterday aged 71.
She was the founding director of the University of Hawai’i's Centre for Hawaiian Studies.
Emalani Case, a lecturer in Pacific studies at Victoria University of Wellington, says her countrywoman inspired a generation of academics and activists through her fiery speeches and fearless opposition to colonialism.
"She was strong enough to stand up and say things like 'This is not America, if you are coming to Hawaii, this is not America, we are not Americans, we are Hawaiians.' She was this strong mana wahine who was showing us that we could do the same, that we had to do the same, we have to be strong, that we had to be staunch, that we had to be unapologetically Hawaiian," Ms Case says.
Copyright © 2021, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com