The Nation of Hawaiʻi is a national liberation movement in favor of Hawaiian independence from the United States. It is formed by proponents of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement in resistance to what sovereignty advocates consider the occupation of Hawaii by the United States.

It is headed by Dennis Pu‘uhonua "Bumpy" Kanahele. He was elected Head of State of the Nation of Hawaiʻi by the ʻAha Kupuna, the Kupuna Council (Council of Elders) on March 6, 1994, in Kaʻanapali, Maui. An act of self determination by a council of 300 Native Hawaiian elders, elected to represent all 7 Hawaiian Islands and their communities.

Leadership The Nation of Hawai’i is led by Dennis Pu‘uhonua "Bumpy" Kanahele. He serves as the CEO of Aloha First, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the cultural heritage and history of Hawai'i through education. He also serves as an executive board member of the International Indian Treaty Council which is recognized by the United Nations as a category II non-governmental Organization (NGO) with consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council.

Puʻuhonua Kanahele received media coverage in 1995 when his group gave sanctuary to Nathan Brown, a Native Hawaiian activist who had staged a public protest in 1990, refusing to pay taxes on his family's ancestral Kuleana Lands. In 2012 the Hawaiian Supreme Court confirmed the viability of Kuleana rights in the present day. He was later arrested for allegedly interfering with U.S. marshals seeking to arrest Nathan Brown.

He was eventually convicted, and sentenced to four months in federal prison, along with a probation period in which he was barred from the landbase of the Nation of Hawaiʻi, Puʻuhonua O Waimānalo and forbidden from participating in Hawaiian National Sovereignty organization efforts.

In 2002, Governor Benjamin J. Cayetano granted Bumpy Pu’uhonua Kanahele a full pardon for all past convictions by the State of Hawai’i.

+Nation ministriesOfficeNamePresidentDennis "Bumpy" KanaheleMinister of Afterlife careRichard LedfordMinister of AgricultureKevin FlanaganMinister of CommerceJohn Kealoha GarciaMinistry of CommunicationRaul Nohea GoodnessMinistry of Culture and ArtsTonu ShaneMinistry of EducationMarcamela "Juna" DulogMinistry of EnergyArlen FlanaganMinistry of EnvironmentMeredith BrooksMinistry of Foreign AffairsJohn Kealoha GarciaMinistry of Health & WellnessDr. Cimone KameiMinistry of HousingBrandon MakaawaawaMinistry of InteriorJohn P. KirkleyMinistry of Land & Natural ResourcesKealii FrankMinistry of TransportationMike StanleyMinistry of TreasuryWeston KanaheleMinistry of Veterans AffairsJason Hanley

History

August 28–30, 1992: Kupuna Council Established In 1992, a council of Native Hawaiian elders began to gather and self-organize to discuss the future of Hawai’i, in anticipation of the Apology Resolution passing into Law. This council held open door meetings that were available to any Native Hawaiian community elder (Kupuna) who wanted to join. Eventually, it consisted of more than 300 elders from every Hawaiian island in Hawai’i, who represented their islands and their communities.

The first official conference of the `Aha Kuka O Na Kupuna (Kupuna Council) was held on August 28–30, 1992 in Mololi’i, South Kona, Big Island, Hawai’i. This conference created and ratified the "Charter for Self-Government, Resolution 92-01”, in which the Kupuna Council "recognized their [Native Hawaiian's] inherent and traditional right to self-government" and "asserted their sovereign jurisdiction and plenary authority." The Resolution also adopted a charter for self-government, and established the ‘Ohana Council (Family Council), which was open to all in the community.

1993 Land Occupation at Kaupō Beach In 1993, Pu’uhonua Kanahele organized a displaced and houseless group of more than 300 Native Hawaiians (Kanaka Maoli) living in Waimānalo to occupy Kaupō Beach, near Makapu'u Lighthouse. This was a second attempt to establish a sovereign Hawaiian National land base, independent from the United States of America.

The site was chosen for its connection to a traditional Hawaiian Heiau (religious temple) established by Kamehameha I in the late 1700s, which was dismantled in 1964 to build Sea Life Park, a tourist attraction located across the street from the beach. Puʻuhonua Kanahele used his own money to go to Sears in Hawai'i to purchase tents for houseless families to live in.

The camp was used to open negotiations with the State of Hawai'i and raise awareness over the growing houseless problem across Hawai'i, as the majority of the State's houseless population was Native Hawaiian.

As Pu’uhonua Kanahele stated, "The homeless problem is a Hawaiian problem. You cannot fix homelessness in Hawai'i without addressing the displacement of the Native Hawaiian people as a direct result of the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom." Many of the camp residents were previously residents of the Waimānalo Hawaiian Homesteads that were forced into houselessness as a result of overcrowding in their family homes and a lack of housing options provided by the Department of Hawaiian Homelands.

Over the course of the occupation, the families reestablished a network of traditional loʻi kalo, Native Hawaiian agricultural systems for cultivating the Hawaiian staple crop, kalo (taro) at Kaupō Beach. Housing structures were also assembled, signaling the movement's commitment to occupying the beach for the long term.

The occupation at Kaupō Beach lasted for 15 months. It ended when an agreement was reached with the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) to establish Pu'uhonua O Waimanalo, a permanent land base for the Nation of Hawai'i, located on 45 acres of Hawaiian Kingdom Crown Lands in Waimānalo, O'ahu. Many of the housing structures from the beach occupation were transported to the new land base.

July 1, 1993 – Hawaiian Sovereignty Advisory Commission Appointment to discuss the future

A month after the occupation of Kaupō Beach, Waimānalo began, Pu’uhonua Kanahele was appointed to the 21-member Hawaiian Sovereignty Advisory Commission (HSAC) by Hawai’i Governor, John D. Waihe‘e.

"It is my sincere hope that the sovereignty of the Hawaiian people will be restored in my lifetime," says US Sen. Daniel Inouye (D) of Hawaii. "I stand ready and willing to act on ... legislation at the request of and on behalf of the American people."

"There are few today who doubt that sovereignty will happen," Governor Waihe’e commented on the effort. "It's a matter of how, when, and in what form."

November 23, 1993 – Apology Law signed into Law

President Bill Clinton enacts U.S. Public Law 103-150–Apology Law (a.k.a. Apology Bill or Apology Resolution) which, "Apologizes to Native Hawaiians on behalf of the people of the United States for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii on January 17, 1893 with the participation of agents and citizens of the United States, and the deprivation of the rights of Native Hawaiians to self-determination."

The "Apology Resolution," acknowledges, "the indigenous Hawaiian people never directly relinquished their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people or over their national lands to the United States, either through their monarchy or through a plebiscite or referendum."

Further, the Resolution states its, "commitment to acknowledge the ramifications of the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, in order to provide a proper foundation for reconciliation between the United States and the Native Hawaiian people."

This Resolution was the first of its kind that expressly acknowledged the participation of the United States in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, in violation of the 1849 Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation between the United States of America and the Hawaiian Kingdom.

This empowered Pu’uhonua Kanehele to continue efforts to claim the rights of Native Hawaiian self determination over their national homelands as well as their right to declare independence from the United States.

December 28, 1993– Restoration of the Independent Nation State of Hawai’i Under International Law by Francis Boyle, Talk in Hawai’i

On December 28, 1993, University of Illinois law professor Francis Boyle, held a talk on the Restoration of the Independent Nation State of Hawai’i Under International Law at Mabel Smyth Hall, Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawai`i on request by the State of Hawai’i's Sovereignty Advisory Commission (HSAC).

The HSAC hired Boyle to review the implications of the Apology Resolution and discusses legal pathways forward towards Native Hawaiian self determination.

Professor Boyle delivered legal testimony interpreting the implications of U.S. Public Law 103-150 for the restoration of the independent Nation State of Hawai`i under international law:

"...now the United States government, after one hundred years, has finally and officially conceded, as a matter of United States law, that Native Hawaiian people have the right to restore the Independent Nation State that you had in 1893 when the United States government came and destroyed it. ...as a matter of international law, the Native Hawaiian people have the right to go out now and certainly proclaim the restoration of that State..."

January 1994: Kanahele Resignation from HSAC

The Hawaiian Sovereignty Advisory Commission (HSAC), of which Puʻuhonua Kanhele was a member, was established and administered by the State of Hawai’i.

The HSAC ultimately recommended pursuing "Federal Recognition" of Native Hawaiians as the reconciliation process direction with the Department of Interiror, which would deem Native Hawaiians as a "Nation within a Nation", similar to a Native American Tribe. Federal Recognition would therefore not allow Hawaiians to exercise their inherent sovereignty to reclaim land and reestablish a "Sovereign State".

This was counter to Pu’uhonua Kanahele's beliefs and he therefore officially resigned from the HSAC in January 1994 to focus on establishing the Nation of Hawai’i as a true Sovereign State.

January 16, 1994 Hawai’i Proclamation Restoring the Independence of the Sovereign Nation State of Hawai’i, ‘Iolani Palace, Honolulu, O’ahu, Hawai’i

On January 16, 1994, 'Aha Kupuna, the Kupuna Council (Council of Elders) publicly proclaimed on behalf of all Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian people) at ‘Iolani Palace, their right of self-determination and re-establish the Independent and Sovereign Nation of Hawai`i, that was illegally taken from the Kanaka Maoli on January 17, 1893.

This Proclamation empowered the 'Aha Kupuna as the Provisional Government of Hawai`i, to provide measures of development for the restoration of independence, leading to a Constitutional Convention.

Excerpts from the Proclamation Restoring the Independence of the Sovereign Nation State of Hawai’i:

"Today, We, the Kanaka Maoli, proclaim our Right of self-determination as a People in accordance with Article 1 (2) of the United Nations Charter, and join the World Community of States as an Independent and Sovereign Nation. We hereby reestablish our Independent and Sovereign Nation of Hawai`i, that was illegally taken from the Kanaka Maoli on January 17, 1893."

"We, the Kanaka Maoli, respectfully continue to seek the guidance and consultation of our Kupuna, be it Spiritually, Mentally, Physically, Socially or Politically, in consultation and decisions that affect our lives, to restore and protect the customs and teachings of our culture, language and knowledge from being exploited, desecrated and driven to eventual extinction. For all these reasons, the Kupuna Council will serve as the Provisional Government of the Independent and Sovereign Nation of Hawai`i, to provide measures of development, until such time when the Kanaka Maoli will convene a Constitutional Convention."