S2E2 From Alcatraz to Mauna Kea

This talk explores the historical perspective of Native Hawaiians with regard to struggles over land, sovereignty and community empowerment over the past 50 years, and how it fits within, and should be considered a part of, a greater theme of indigenous civil rights movements in the United States. Native Hawaiian activists tapped into the American Indian movement and in the process, became part of a wider movement for the rights of indigenous peoples impacted by American settler-colonial dispossession and marginalization. As the Native Hawaiian movement took shape, not only did it gain inspiration, momentum and support from mainland indigenous Americans, but, over time reciprocated the same. Native American and Native Hawaiian protests over land and sovereignty demonstrated growing indications of indigenous solidarity; Native Hawaiian activists joined the Standing Rock protests in 2016, viewing the Dakota Access Pipeline as a desecration of land belonging to indigenous Americans. Likewise, Native American activists provided support for the Mauna Kea protests in 2018-2019, some even staging protests on the mainland.

Bio: Dr. Erik Hadley received his BA in History from the University of Montana and MA and PhD in History from University at Buffalo, with specializations in Early Modern Europe and the Atlantic World. He is a lecturer in the History Department at Boise State University, where he teaches classes on medieval and early modern Europe and oceanic histories of the Atlantic and Pacific Worlds. His research interests center on cultural history, particularly folkloric rituals, identity and popular commemoration, in both Western Europe and indigenous peoples in the Americas and Hawai’i. Dr. Hadley is the recipient of 2019-2020 Fulbright Research U.S. Scholar grant to Belgium to study the historical evolution, commemoration and public memory of UNESCO-recognized folkloric ritual festivals dating back the late Middle Ages and has authored numerous articles on historic cultural identity in French-speaking Belgium.

Watch the video here.