if you've read about water not being released to fight the #lahaina fire, you should definitely read this excellent article on water rights in #maui , co-authored by Kapuaʻala Sproat, a native hawaiian law professor : https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/17/hawaii-fires-maui-water-rights-disaster-capitalism
tbh, everyone should read this article because it shows just how messed up the water situation is on the islands.
it also shows the confusing ways that colonialism has operated here & how it continues to operate. i've seen property records that show native hawaiian owners in one year, then 5 years later, mysteriously, there's a western name listed, despite no record of a sale. this was in the 50s/60s. this stuff is common.
it's important to recognize that a big part of the strategy of colonialism here is creating these convoluted legal histories that end up hiding whatever might have really happened, but at the end of the day, somehow the land is no longer yours and the water is no longer yours either.
so yea, read the article. it IS confusing. that's how colonialism works around here.
#hawaii #fire #ClimateChange #water #indigenous #KanakaMaoli #land #colonialism #history #USPol