Congressman-Elect Kai Kahele Represents an “Awakened Generation” of Native Hawaiians | Hawaii

Kai Kahele had one ambition growing up in Hawaii and that was to fly airplanes. He achieved this goal at the age of 19 and was happy working as a military and commercial pilot when a family tragedy propelled him into the world of politics.

Kahele, an Indigenous Hawaiian, was appointed to the State Senate in 2016 after the sudden death of his father, Senator Gil Kahele, 73, who has been a progressive supporter of the Democratic Party for over 40 years. Two days before his death, Kahele’s father had asked him to follow in his footsteps.

“Five years ago I was a working father, living my dream of being a pilot and raising my young family when things changed overnight. I grew up with the progressive values ​​of the Democratic Party, but it wasn’t my intention,” Kahele told the Guardian. “I think my father knew that if there was someone who would carry on his legacy and take a leadership role in the Hawaii Native community and for the indigenous peoples of our land, his son was ready. And here I am.”

On Sunday, Kahele, 46, will be sworn into Congress as part of the most diverse Democratic freshman class in U.S. history, with newly elected women outnumbering men two to one. He will also be among a record-breaking five Native Americans — three Democrats and two Republicans — in Congress. It was to be six before New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland, a member of Laguna Pueblo, was appointed Secretary of the Interior by Joe Biden.

“I’m delighted because Congresswoman Haaland brings a cultural and historical perspective to a very important Cabinet-level position that has been lacking. The indigenous peoples of this country share a similar history, a history of colonization, oppression and exclusion, and their economic benefits and social fabric unfortunately depend directly on the federal government. I have a feeling we will be able to do great things for our indigenous communities.”

They will lose their jobs, but for the first time, many in the Indian country are hoping for meaningful change, or at least an end to decades of US government breaches of treaty that have devastated life expectancy, political participation, and economic opportunities for Native Americans .

There are currently 574 federally recognized sovereign tribal nations in 35 states, and according to the 2010 census, 5.2 million people, or about 2% of the US population, identify as Native Americans or Alaska Natives—descendants of those who survived US government killing policies have, remove or assimilate indigenous peoples.

In Hawaii, Kahele says, historical land grabs, cultural violations and economic abuses committed by the US government in collaboration with Western businessmen are at the root of some of the most difficult and divisive issues of our time. These include the contested decision to build a giant telescope atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s most sacred mountain, and water rights in the face of increasing scarcity associated with overdevelopment. Native Hawaiians are not currently recognized as sovereign Native Americans by the US government.

“We have an awakened generation of Native Hawaiians who know their past, they understand and speak their language, and they don’t repent…People are divided about how to right the wrongs, whether through sovereignty or federal recognition and a portion.” my role is trying to figure out what the future path looks like. It is important to have a voice in Congress and to be represented at the table.”

Representation is also important symbolically, argues Kahele. “It sends a message to indigenous peoples around the world that their voices matter, that their history, language and culture matter, and that you will have people in the United States Congress for that.” We can be an example for other countries dealing with the same problems.”

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Kahele was born in 1974 in Miloli’i, an off-grid fishing community on the southern tip of the island of Hawaii where homes generate electricity through solar panels and collect rainfall for water. It is one of the last surviving villages, believed to have been settled by pre-Western migrants from China and Taiwan.

Before politics, Kahele’s father, Gil, was a Marine who met his future wife, a flight attendant, on a Hawaiian beach. Kahele and his two siblings grew up with three cousins ​​who were orphaned by a drunk driver.

“My father passed on to me his experiences as a native Hawaiian in the military, traveling around the South in the 1960s and seeing segregation and racism first hand. My mother took us on random trips around the world, made sure we knew there was a bigger world than Hawaii and often took me into the cockpit with her, which piqued my interest from a very young age.”

He will join Congress as a lieutenant colonel in the Hawaii Air National Guard and continue to fly part-time with Hawaiian Airlines. (His wife, Maria, is a flight attendant, and they have three daughters, ages four, six, and 16.)

Kahele served as Majority Leader in the state Senate, chairing the Land and Water Committee in the face of growing demands for environmental justice from Indigenous communities. The climate crisis is also pervasive in Hawaii and on islands around the world, as rising sea levels and temperatures ravage coral reefs and fish stocks and threaten the livelihoods of coastal communities.

“A few feet of sea could wipe out Waikiki, Hawaii’s economic powerhouse. On islands across the Pacific, most of the population lives near the ocean, on the coast roads and houses are on the brink of collapse. We need to rethink and rethink what our communities will look like in the future. If you must use natural resources to feed your families, you must understand climate and environmental changes in order to survive. That’s where I come from.”

He hopes that after four years of retreating, America will take concrete steps forward. “Joe Biden’s climate plan is definitely 100% better than Trump’s plan. Just the fact that we will be moving back into Paris is tremendous, as is having climate change advocate Deb Haaland at Cabinet level and leading an agency that will make important decisions.”

The geographic isolation of Hawaii, which is 2,500 miles from the mainland, has protected islanders somewhat from the worst of the Covid health crisis. But the economic fallout has been devastating and has reopened the question of over-reliance on tourism – especially as natural resources like beaches and clean water are threatened by the climate crisis, overdevelopment and environmental degradation.

Amid mass layoffs, the pandemic has increased food insecurity in Hawaii by 50%, with a quarter of the people currently battling hunger; Native Hawaiians are disproportionately affected.

“Covid has been devastating to our economy, which lives and breathes almost entirely on tourism, and it has had a detrimental impact on the social fabric of our community and exposed many of the deeply-rooted issues in Hawaii. We have to diversify, we have to be more sustainable.

“Many people are hurt and face great uncertainty and fear for the future. I see a migration of people leaving Hawaii for the mainland [for work]the brain drain of teachers, doctors, firefighters does not help our economy or our social structure.”

Kahele is firmly on the left of the party, an advocate of the Green New Deal, universal Medicare and universal preschool education – policies dismissed as radical by many on the right. Assigned to the Congressional Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, he hopes they will pass a green transformation package endorsed by lawmakers like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“Why do we have to call these changes radical, this is where we have to go as a country to invest in every little child and rebuild and strengthen our country… I can’t wait to say it a hey hou — which means “see you later” in Hawaii — to President Trump on Jan. 20. It’s time to move on.”