Hawaii middle schoolers prompt Indigenous Peoples' Day bill

Linsey Dower, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
·4 min read
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Mar. 15—The latest version of Senate Bill 732 proposes a new state holiday called Indigenous Peoples' Day to be observed on the second Monday of October while dropping Election Day from the list.

The latest version of Senate Bill 732 proposes a new state holiday called Indigenous Peoples' Day to be observed on the second Monday of October while dropping Election Day from the list.

The bill, which crossed over to the House of Representatives on March 7, aims to educate the community on the state's obligation to its original inhabitants and recognize the importance of the protection and revival of Indigenous cultures.

A similar bill previously failed to advance at the Legislature, and state Sen. Dru Kanuha (D, Kona-Kau-Volcano ) said he decided to reintroduce another measure after a middle school civics teacher reached out to him in October on behalf of her students.

"They were inquisitive on this particular bill because it was brought up in the past, and they wanted to know why it didn't get any hearings, " Kanuha said. "They really wanted to bring awareness, ultimately to the state's obligation to protect all rights traditionally exercised by descendants of Native Hawaiians and as well as other Indigenous cultures throughout the world."

Volcano School of Arts and Sciences civics teacher Barbara Sarbin said her students expressed a passionate interest in having a holiday to honor Indigenous cultures, especially since many of them are from Native Hawaiian families.

"Their passion about having an Indigenous Peoples' Day is completely to do with honoring those who came before, recognizing it and then celebrating it, " Sarbin said. "They are aware that their parents or their grandparents, depending on their age, did not have that opportunity, did not get to speak their language, did not get to practice their traditions and that there was shame involved."

After several email exchanges with Kanuha in which Sarbin shared her students' thoughts on the proposal, the lawmaker offered them the opportunity to help with the bill's drafting, she said.

"We submitted everybody's thoughts, and the senator crafted those into more legal-sounding language, " she said. "And that's the preamble of the bill."

The original version of SB 732 would have established Indigenous Peoples' Day as a replacement for Discoverers' Day, which was designated as a day of observance, not an official state holiday, in Hawaii in 1988. However, an amendment by the Senate Committee on Hawaiian Affairs would repeal the holiday for Election Day, held on the first Tuesday of November in even-numbered years, in order to avoid concerns about adding yet another state holiday to the calendar.

The move was proposed since voter ballots now are primarily submitted by mail, according to state Sen. Les Ihara (D, Palolo-Kaimuki-Moiliili ).

In written testimony, the Department of Budget and Finance pointed out that swapping Election Day for Indigenous Peoples' Day would not cause additional costs for the state in election years, since the same number of holidays would be observed, but in nonelection years the new holiday would cost the state approximately $17 million in lost productivity.

Since 1992, 17 states and the District of Columbia have replaced the Columbus Day holiday in October with Indigenous Peoples' Day, according to SB 732. The movement started with the acknowledgement that the explorer's landfall marked the start of colonialism in the New World, which led to the deaths of millions of Indigenous people. SB 732 says the Native Hawaiian population declined 84 % in the first 60 years after Capt. James Cook's arrival in 1778, largely due to the introduction of infectious diseases.

Changing Discoverers' Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day would shift the focus to recognize the original inhabitants of the islands as well as the many other cultures present in Hawaii, the bill says.

Whether or not the bill passes, Kanuha and Sarbin say the experience will be an important lesson on empowerment and civic engagement for students.

"Children should come away from this experience feeling empowered, " Sarbin said.

SB 732 passed first reading Thursday in the state House of Representatives and has been referred to the House Committee on Culture, Arts and International Affairs, and the House Committee on Finance.