Congressman-elect Kai Kahele represents an 'awakened generation' of Native Hawaiians
Kai Kahele had one ambition growing up in Hawaii, and that was to fly airplanes. He achieved that goal by the age of 19, and was happy working as a military and commercial pilot when a family tragedy propelled him into the world of politics.
Kahele, an indigenous Hawaiian, was appointed to the state senate in 2016 after the sudden death of his father senator Gil Kahele, 73, a progressive stalwart in the Democrat party for over 40 years. Two day before he died, Kahele’s father had asked him to consider following in his footsteps.
“Five years ago I was a working dad, living my dream as a pilot and raising my young family when things changed overnight. I grew up immersed in the progressive values of the Democrat party, but this is not something I planned to do,” Kahele told the Guardian. “I think my dad knew that if there was someone who was going to continue his legacy, and be a leader in the Native Hawaiian community and for the indigenous peoples in our country, that his son was ready. And here I am.”
On Sunday, Kahele, 46, will be sworn into Congress as part of the most diverse Democrat freshman classes in US history, with newly elected women outnumbering men two to one. He’ll also be among a record-breaking five Native Americans – three Democrats and two Republicans – in Congress. It was going to be six, until New Mexico congresswoman Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo, was appointed as secretary to the interior by Joe Biden.
“I’m elated because congresswoman Haaland brings to a very important cabinet level position a cultural and historical perspective that’s been missing. Indigenous peoples in this country share a similar history, a history of colonization, oppression and marginalization, and whose economic benefit and social fabric is unfortunately directly dependent on the federal government. I feel like we’re going to be able to do great things for our indigenous communities.”
They will have their work cut out, but for the first time many in Indian country are hopeful of meaningful change or at the very least, the end to decades of treaty violations by the US government which has had devastating consequences for life expectancy, political participation and economic opportunities for Native Americans.
Currently there are 574 federally recognised sovereign tribal nations located across 35 states, and according to the 2010 census, 5.2 million people or about 2% of the US population identifies as American Indian or Alaskan Native – descendants of those who survived US government policies to kill, remove or assimilate indigenous peoples.
In Hawaii, historical land grabs, cultural violations and economic abuses perpetrated by the US government in cahoots with western businessmen are at the root of some of the most difficult and polarizing issues today, according to Kahele. This includes the contested decision to construct a huge telescope on Mauna Kea, the most sacred mountain to Native Hawaiians, as well as water rights amid growing shortages linked to overdevelopment. Native Hawaiians are not currently recognised by the US government as sovereign indigenous people.
“We have an awakened generation of Native Hawaiians that know their past, they understand and speak their language and they’re not turning back… People are split about how to right the wrongs, whether it’s through sovereignty or federal recognition, and part of my role is trying to figure out what the future path looks like. Having a voice in Congress and representation at the table is important.”
Representation is also important symbolically, argues Kahele. “It sends a message to indigenous peoples around the world that their voices matter, that their history, language and culture matter, and that you’ll have people fighting for that in the United States of America’s Congress. We can be an example for other countries dealing with these same issues.”
Village
Kahele was born in 1974 in Miloli’i, an off-the-grid fishing community on the southern tip of the island of Hawaii where households generate electricity through solar panels and collect rain for water. It’s one of the last surviving villages where pre-western migrants from China and Taiwan are believed to have settled.
Before politics Kahele’s father Gil was a marine who met his future wife, a flight attendant, on a Hawaiian beach. Kahele and his two siblings grew up with three cousins who were orphaned by a drunk driver.
“My dad conveyed to me the experiences he had in the military as a Native Hawaiian travelling through the south in the 1960s seeing segregation and racism through his own eyes. My mum took us on random trips all over the world, made sure we knew there was a bigger world than Hawaii, and would often take me into the cockpit which piqued my interest at a very early age.”
He’ll join Congress as a lieutenant colonel with the Hawaii air national guard and will continue to fly part time with Hawaiian Airlines. (His wife Maria is a flight attendant, and they have three daughters, aged four, six and 16.)
Kahele served as the state senate majority leader and chaired the committee on land and water amid growing demands from Native communities for environmental justice. The climate crisis is also omnipresent in Hawaii, and islands across the world, as rising sea levels and temperatures are devastating coral reefs and fish stocks, as well as threatening the existence of coastal communities.
“A few metres of sea could wipe
out Waikiki, the economic engine of Hawaii. On islands across the Pacific, most of the population lives near the ocean, around the shoreline you have the roads and homes on the verge of collapsing. We need to reimagine and rethink how our communities will look like in the future… when you need to use natural resources to feed your families, you need to understand the changes in climate and environment to survive. That’s where I come from.”
He’s hopeful that America will start to take concrete steps forwards after four years of backtracking. “Joe Biden’s climate plan is definitely 100% better than the Trump plan. Just the fact that we’ll re-enter Paris is huge, so is having climate change champion Deb Haaland at the cabinet level and leading an agency that will make critical decisions.”
The geographical isolation of Hawaii, which is situated 2,500 miles from the mainland, has somewhat protected islanders from the worst of the Covid health crisis. But, the economic fallout has been devastating, and has renewed questions about the over-reliance on tourism – especially as natural resources like beaches and clean water are under threat from the climate crisis, over development and environmental degradation.
Amid mass layoffs, the pandemic has increased food insecurity by 50% in Hawaii, with a quarter of people currently struggling with hunger; Native Hawaiians are disproportionately affected.
“Covid has been devastating to our economy which lives and breathes almost exclusively from tourism, and it’s been detrimental to the social fabric of our community, exposing many of the deep known issues in Hawaii. We need to diversify, we need to be more sustainable.
“A lot of people are hurting and face great uncertainty and fear about the future. I see a migration of people leaving Hawaii for the mainland [for work], the brain drain of teachers, doctors, firefighters doesn’t help our economy or social structure.”
Kahele is firmly on the party’s left, an advocate for the Green New Deal, Medicare for all and universal preschool education – policies dismissed as radical by many on the right. He’s been assigned to the congressional transportation and infrastructure committee and hopes that they will pass a transformational green package advocated by lawmakers like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“Why do we have to label these changes as radical, this is where we need to go as a country, in order to invest in every young child, and to rebuild and strengthen our country … I can’t wait to saya hui hou – which in Hawaii means see you later – to President Trump on January 20th. It’s time to move on.”
[Representation] … sends a message to indigenous peoples around the world that their voices matter
Kai Kahele