About

Why is Hawaiʻi a state?
How did it become a state?
What were the conditions that led to statehood?
What are the benefits and disadvantages of statehood?

In 2004, The University of Hawaiʻiʻs, Academy of Creative Media began production of a Statehood documentary. Along with Nanette Napoleon, I was contracted by Ann Misawa, the filmʻs director, to research the event. Statehood, we were quick to discover, was not simply President Eisenhower signing the Admissions Act into law, nor was it the decades of lobbying efforts by the Statehood Commission. What we found in the Hawaiʻi statehood story were perspectives that ranged from the ILWU, the 100th/442nd batallion, the sugar lobbyists and industry, the cessation of Hawaii from Chapter XI, Article 73 in the UN Charter, and finally the idea that perhaps Hawaiʻi is still a kingdom without a king or queen.

This website, Statehood Hawaii grew out of the confrontation that occurred in front of Iolani Palace on Statehood Day in April 2006, when Senator Slom organized a march onto Iolani Palace. Activists who saw the march as arrogant and disrespectful would not allow the marchers onto the Iolani Palace grounds.

The use of Iolani Palace as a place to celebrate American statehood is as provocational as holding a KKK march at the motel where Martin Luther King was shot. It was meant to incite controversy. Iolani Palace, as a historical site, represents the Hawaiian Monarchy and was also used as a prison to the deposed Queen Liliʻuokalani after her overthrow in 1893. In 1898, Iolani Palace was also the location in which the United States, under President McKinley, annexed Hawaiʻi and signed a treaty of annexation with the Republic of Hawaii under Sanford Dole, one of the men responsible for the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

It became very clear that controversy over Hawaiʻi and statehood is very much alive, and while the confrontation that occurred in April 2006, is not the totality of the argument by any means, it is an integral part to our understanding of not only Hawaiʻi and US history, but to events that continue to shape our world today.

While the objective is to present various perspectives of Hawaiʻi and statehood, and to explore the process and conditions that led to our 50th state, one thing that is very clear is that this controversy will not be resolved by polarizing the state against sovereignty politics. The systemic conditions of the world in the years after WWII were grappling with conditions of colonialism. This condition was manifest throughout the world, and the context for statehood is a result of that. Having said that, the future of Hawaiʻi is in the hands of those who have the will to shape it, and I hope that the research, interviews and documents contained within will offer new insight and perspective to our islandʻs history.

Arnie Saiki left Hawaii in 1985 to attend school in New York. In 1987, he came back to Hawaii to work as a legislative aide. He returned to New York where he received his MFA at NYU in Dramatic Writing. In 1991, he continued his education in Performance Studies at NYU under Michael Taussig and Richard Schechner. He worked in theater and music production, and in 1997, he moved to Los Angeles where he continued writing and working in media production and the internet. In his studies, Hawaii has always been central to his studies and much of his work has been about Hawaiʻi. His paper, Restoring the Loss, focuses on the centennial observance of the overthrow of Liliʻuokalani in 1993.