Referencing The Duty to Aloha ‘ ̄Aina: Indigenous Values as a Legal Foundation for Hawai‘i’s Public Trust by D. Kapua‘ala Sproat and MJ Palau-McDonald.

Hawaiʻi First is a vision for a political platform, not a political party. It is a platform that crosses all party lines to focus on doing what is best for Hawaiʻi, the land and its people.

In articulating a vision for Hawaiʻi First, we must begin with the deepest truths of this land: aloha ʻāina is not a slogan. It is a duty. And a legal mandate that has been too long ignored.

Rooted in ancient genealogy, aloha ʻāina binds the people to their homeland, to each other, and to future generations. It is the magnetic pull described in Hawaiian language newspapers after the overthrow, urging people to live sovereignly on their own land despite colonial dispossession.¹

For too long, governance in Hawaiʻi has operated within foreign frameworks – western legal doctrines, corporate models of ownership, and extractive economic systems – all of which actively stand in opposition to aloha ʻāina.

But the law itself in Hawaiʻi tells another story. As Sproat and Palau-McDonald argue in their analysis of Ching v. Case, aloha ʻāina is not just cultural practice – it is legal duty.²

When Uncle Kū and Aunty Maxine sued the state for failing to protect Pōhakuloa from military degradation, the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court upheld their claim, affirming that aloha ʻāina is embedded within Hawaiʻi’s Public Trust Doctrine.³ This doctrine, unlike its western counterparts, is rooted in Indigenous Hawaiian law and governance, where land was never property to be owned, but a living ancestor to be cared for, cultivated, and protected in reciprocity.⁴

Hawaiʻi First Calls for:

1. Re-centering Governance on Aloha ʻĀina
   Embedding aloha ʻāina as the legal, ethical, and spiritual foundation for all state policies. Decision-making must recognize land as ancestor and kin, demanding stewardship over extraction, care over profit.⁵
2. Restorative Justice as Legal Praxis
   Moving beyond punitive or purely regulatory frameworks to policies that repair historical harm: returning lands, demilitarizing occupied areas, restoring waterways, and reviving Native knowledge systems.⁶
3. Sovereignty as Practice, Not Symbol
   Rejecting mere token inclusion of Native perspectives while state power remains colonial in structure. Hawaiʻi First demands true political realignment – governance by and for the people of Hawaiʻi, guided by the kuleana of aloha ʻāina.⁷
4. Economic Systems Rooted in Kinship
   Shifting from an economy of commodification to one of cultivation and care. Land is not real estate; it is ʻāina, that which feeds, and it must feed all who call Hawaiʻi home, now and in generations to come.⁸

A Vision Forward

Hawaiʻi First is not a nationalist dream divorced from reality. It is a return to rightful relationships – with land, with ancestors, with community. Aloha ʻāina, as a practice, demands vigilance and courage. It guided aliʻi like Māʻilikūkahi, who reorganized Oʻahu to ensure land was managed sustainably, and Kauikeaouli, who enshrined the principle that land is held in trust for all Kānaka.⁹

Today, as courts recognize the legal duty to aloha ʻāina, we must press further to actualize its promise. This is not a gift from the state; it is an obligation of the state to uphold the foundational law of this place – Indigenous law – and to redress centuries of dispossession, degradation, and disconnection.¹⁰

“Aloha ʻāina is that pull to place, that internal compass orienting Kānaka Maoli toward intimacy and self-governance simultaneously.”¹¹

Hawaiʻi First envisions a nation where this compass guides us once more. Where land and law are not battlegrounds, but grounds for restoration, abundance, and dignity for all.

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Footnotes

1. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, Remembering Our Intimacies: Moʻolelo, Aloha ʻĀina, and Ea (University of Minnesota Press, 2021), 13.

2. Ke Aloha Aina; Heaha Iaʻ, Ke Aloha Aina, May 25, 1895, 7, as cited in D. Kapuaʻala Sproat and MJ Palau-McDonald, “The Duty to Aloha ʻĀina,” Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 57 (2022): 526.

3. Sproat and Palau-McDonald, “The Duty to Aloha ʻĀina,” 527.

4. Ching v. Case, 449 P.3d 1146 (Haw. 2019), as discussed in Sproat and Palau-McDonald, “The Duty to Aloha ʻĀina,” 528.

5. Ibid., 529–530.

6. Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua, “The Enduring Power of Aloha ʻĀina,” TEDxManoa, October 29, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUd4KzRekoI.

7. Sproat and Palau-McDonald, “The Duty to Aloha ʻĀina,” 531–532.

8. Ibid., 533.

9. Kamanamaikalani Beamer et al., “Reflections on Sustainability Concepts: Aloha ʻĀina and the Circular Economy,” Sustainability (March 9, 2021): 2–5.

10. Kamanamaikalani Beamer, No Mākou Ka Mana: Liberating the Nation (University of Hawaii Press, 2014), 34–36.

11. Sproat and Palau-McDonald, “The Duty to Aloha ʻĀina,” 537–539.