Hawaii academic Dr Emalani Case says the military personnel from 29 countries taking part in the 2024 Rimpac military exercise off the coast of Hawaii from today, are “practising to invade”.
“They call it practising defence but they’re really learning how to defend an empire while putting indigenous people at risk,” she said.
We’ve got to think about these colonial nations coming together to train and provide so-called security and safety to the world, while really putting all of us at risk, who have never been deemed human enough to be worthy of that same safety and security.
— Emalani Case
Militarisation of Hawai’i
Hawaii has been heavily impacted by militarisation. Case said her people had had to deal with military harm and damage to their people and environment for over 100 years.
The kingdom of Hawaii was invaded by the US in 1893. The monarchy was overthrown, and the islands have stayed under US control since, with several large military bases.
Case said the military made it a hard place to live when the land and people were routinely dismissed and disregarded.
The US Navy has publicly said it was committed to the environment and reducing harm.
Nonetheless, it has had a highly destructive track record when it comes to pollution and environmental harm.
For example, SINKEX is an activity during Rimpac where various navies shoot ammunition at decommissioned ships off the coast of Kauai island.
Case told Te Ao Māori News, “The ships just sink and they leave them there. So there are toxins leaking out into our ocean.”
Tourism paradise?
Te Ao Maōri News asked Case why Hawaii was known as a paradise tourist destination but many people didn’t know about the violent history.
Case referenced the works of Teresia Teaiwa, an I-Kiribati and African-American scholar, who said tourism and military worked together to dispossess and displace Hawaiians.
Militourism is a phenomenon by which a military or paramilitary force ensures the smooth running of a tourist industry, and that same tourist industry masks the military force behind it.
— Teresia Teaiwa
Tourism masked the military violence by placing a flower over it, or a swinging hula girl, Case said.
“[Hawaii] is beautiful but the US military is one of the biggest abusers of that beauty.”
The people of Hawaii were often left behind and focus placed on tourists, yet residents were without enough water or resources to house and care for the people. Case said this explained the enormous diaspora of Kānaka Maoli living outside Hawaii.
“We cannot be thinking about relying on the 25,000 personnel who are going to be coming, bringing their dollars, but also bringing their violence, bringing the increase in sex trafficking, bringing in an increase in violence against women.”
The only year there wasn’t an increase in sex trafficking and violence during Rimpac was in 2020 because of Covid-19, which downscaled Rimpac and meant military personnel weren’t able to go ashore, she said.
“That’s what they’re bringing to our islands.”
Violent attack on akua
Kānaka Maoli say they have a spiritual and genealogical connection to the oceans and lands. This includes Kanaloa and Papahānaumoku, the gods of ocean and earth, which is similar to Tangaroa and Papatūānuku in Aotearoa. Papahānaumoku is the akua in Hawaii that births their moku, islands.
“Any assaults against our akua, our gods, is an assault against us, it’s an assault against our whakapapa, it’s an assault against everything that we stand for,” Case said.
Case grew up and her whānau still live in Waimea, 45 minutes from Pōhakuloa, one of the largest military training facilities. She grew up feeling and hearing bombs all the time.
I grew up hearing and feeling bombs all the time and it’s a kind of pain you don’t ever want to experience because you know what’s happening to Papa, what’s happening to your family. We view land, mountains, rivers, ocean as family.
— Emalani Case
Rimpac about Palestine, West Papua and Kanaky
Rimpac was an international issue, Case said, and a gateway event.
“We’ve got to think about these colonial nations coming together to train and provide so-called security and safety to the world while really putting all of us at risk, who have never been deemed human enough to be worthy of that same safety and security,” she said.
The nations participating in Rimpac include Israel and Indonesia. Case said her homeland was being turned into a training ground for imperial genocidal regimes who learned, practised and honed their skills to then commit genocide in Palestine and West Papua. She also cited the participation of France, which had no proximity to the Pacific but had “oppressed Pacific brothers and sisters in the French-occupied Kanaky”.
“Militarism is upheld by and supports settler colonialism. It supports white supremacy.”
Case said calling for an end to Rimpac and demanding New Zealand withdraw was not just about saving Hawaii.
She said boycotting Rimpac was about peace, demilitarisation, decolonisation and climate justice. “The US military is one of the hugest contributors of pollutants into the environment.”
Rimpac and FestPAC
Case was in Hawaii for Protecting Oceania, part of FestPAC - the festival of Pacific arts and culture hosted by Hawaii this year.
She said there was a lot of discussion about Rimpac during Protecting Oceania.
“Rimpac and FestPAC didn’t happen at the exact same time but it’s interesting to think about the convergence of these cultural celebrations and violent military detonations around the same time, in the same waters, and on the same land.”
She was pleased to see people held banners saying “STOP RIMPAC” in the closing ceremony at FestPAC. She said culture and politics went hand in hand.