aloha oe

dear queen lili'ouklani,

i am sad for your departure in this world and even more distraught about the removal of your rule over your people. i know i've only learned about you and your family through museums and youtube videos but i can't shake this spur in my heart for the hawaiian people. your grace and compassion can be seen in your eyes that stare back at me from age old photos. it can be told in the steps you took at washington place and in the rooms of the iolani palace. it can be felt by your people as you sign violent declarations of your "tyranny" to avoid bloodshed. i feel it in the blood of my war refugee veins. the injustice that demands reparations. the heartbreak that can still be heard on the shores of hawai'i.

when was the first mistake made? was it when king kamehameha allowed white colonizers to be ali'i? was it when christian missionaries settled in and converted the monarchy? was it when it became legal for white foreigners to own land in hawai'i? was it when captain cook finally made it to the hawaiian islands and decreed it to be the sandwich islands?

when was that point in history you would have taken back? when was it that you could still save your peoples from american exceptionalism?

i know the forces of western imperialism was stronger than any current that hawai'i has every faced but could it be possible for these series of eight islands could rebuke the eventual reality of annexation?

i'm not so sure but i do know that every hawaiian heart still beats to the thunder of your ancestors.

i can only hope to be so loud.

with all my love and admiration,
yvonne tran