Wednesday, March 11, 1998
Activist urges students to power
LECTURE: Speaker from Hawaii stresses change through
involvement
By Marisa Yamane
Daily Bruin Contributor
A powerful Hawaiian chant echoed through Ackerman Union’s
Viewpoint lounge on Monday evening.
It called upon the ‘aumakua, or ancestral guardian spirits, to
bless and give spiritual guidance to Haunani-Kay Trask, the
outspoken leader of the native Hawaiian sovereignty struggle and
the speaker for the evening.
The chanter presented Trask with a ho’okupu, a traditional
Hawaiian gift of bananas and sweet potatoes wrapped in tea leaves.
As Trask took center stage, the predominantly Pacific-Islander
audience applauded and greeted her with a warm aloha.
Trask’s goal was to teach the Pacific Islanders how to empower
themselves and to make them realize that despite being such a small
group, it is possible to rise up to power in such a big place like
UCLA.
"You should always ascend leadership and challenge people at the
highest possible level," advised Trask, who currently serves as the
director of the Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of
Hawai’i at Manoa (UH).
She strongly encouraged them to get involved in student
government because she believes it is associated with tremendous
mana, or power.
"The institution of student government commands resources,
physical space and support, and calls to attention the university
administration, the board and the news media," Trask said.
She knows this through first-hand experience. UH’s native
Hawaiian students, who make up less than 4 percent of the
population, recently captured student government.
Trask, who comes from a politically active family, also offered
a lot of advice through her own success stories, which she believes
comes from her lifelong dedication to political organization.
Trask is an indigenous Hawaiian nationalist, a political
organizer, a professor of Hawaiian Studies and an author of several
scholarly and literary works. Currently, she is the political
strategist for Ka Lahui Hawai’i, the state’s largest sovereignty
organization and self-proclaimed political entity.
Trask’s most recent accomplishment was getting the state of
Hawaii to build a $7.5-million educational complex for the Center
for Hawaiian Studies, which she considers to be the most visual
symbol of their success. But it did not happen overnight.
It was a five-year effort that took thousands of flyers, hours
of lobbying, reams of testimony and dogged insistence.
"Struggle makes you strong," Trask said. And in order to be a
successful activist, she emphasized, "you should never give
up."
Trask has touched the lives of many. "She has been a source of
inspiration and a source of strength, and just a mentor to all of
us," said Erin Wright, one of the coordinators of the event and a
former student of Trask’s.
The speaking engagement was hosted by the Pacific Islands
Students Association (PISA). As part of their outreach program,
PISA invited students from Carson High School to the event. But a
majority of those in attendance were UCLA students.
"Since I’m not usually conscious about the political struggle
that exists between different cultures, I found her discussion to
be very intellectually stimulating," said Ryan Lan, a first-year
student majoring in business-economics.
Trask has been an activist for Hawaiian rights and an activist
in Hawaii for the past 20 years.
She compares herself to the African-American leader Malcolm
X.
"I’ve done for the Hawaiian people in part what Malcolm X did
for his people," Trask said.MARY CIECEK
Haunani-Kay Trask, the director for the Center for Hawaiian
Studies, gives a speech on political causes.