“Ka Aina No Ka Poe o Hawaii”

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the independent newspaper Huli, published at the birth of the modern Hawaiian sovereignty movement from 1971 to 1973 by the grassroots political organization Kokua Hawaii. Reading through the surviving issues of Huli available in institutional archives, the article considers the variety of perspectives promoted within its pages to position Kokua Hawaii in relation to international understandings of anticolonial liberatory politics of the Global South. Revisiting prominent critiques of Kokua Hawaii, it argues that insights provided by Huli trouble lasting understandings of the organization and underscore the periodical’s relevance for navigating rising waves of political struggle in Hawaiʻi today. Moreover, the article contends that Huli—a timely revival of Hawaiʻi’s politically engaged print culture that flourished during the nineteenth century—offers one foundation for constructing a counterhegemonic lineage of socially concerned artists and cultural workers in Hawaiʻi. Through an analysis of Huli’s content, imagery, and context of production, the article uses the name of the periodical and its call to “huli” as a means of tracking the influence of Kokua Hawaii’s politics and aesthetics into the present, with Huli acting as a medium for insurgent inspiration.