06-12-2017, 02:40 AM
http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/06/11...-colleges/
University of Hawaii at Hilo and Hawaii Community College have received numerous complaints over the ahu from students, faculty, community members and veterans who say they feel disrespected by the sight of the flags hanging upside-down, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported (http://bit.ly/2rZFfYO) today.
The students responsible for the structures are members of a statewide group known as Ahahui Hae Hawaii, or the Hawaiian Flag Society.
Group members built them in response to student arrests on Mauna Kea two years ago and say the upside down flags are an internationally recognized symbol of a nation in distress, said group leader Kalaniakea Wilson.
UH Hilo administrators have no plans to remove the flag on an ahu, said Interim Executive Assistant to the Chancellor Gail Makuakane-Lundin.
Leaders at Hawaii Community College, located near UH Hilo, have chosen to remove the flags but not the stone altars after consulting with its Native Hawaiian council. The council determined that the flag is a form of free speech and its removal would not be offensive to Hawaiian culture.
In this case it seems to me the ahu is also just an expression of free speech too. Apparently this has been happening around the island though in other random public spaces:
He said students also constructed inverted-flag ahu at UH-Manoa and Kauai Community College. He said the group ultimately wants to bring attention to “illegal acts of war from Jan. 16, 1893, by the U.S. government.”
“That’s the student message,” Wilson said. “We need this resolved; 124 years is too long.”
But the ahu haven’t come without some controversy. Last school year, a UH-Hilo student anonymously contacted the Tribune-Herald and said he felt threatened by the UH-Hilo ahu structure’s statement — specifically the inverted flag — and questioned why it was allowed to remain on campus permanently.
HCC also has received “whistle-blower complaints” about its ahu, Chancellor Rachel Solemsaas told the Tribune-Herald recently, which have come from students, faculty, community members and “veterans who feel disrespected.”
Administrators at both campuses say they’ve engaged “extensively” with several of the students who claim responsibility and are now following guidance from their campus Native Hawaiian councils.
UH-Hilo said it has largely left the structure — flag and ahu — in place.
HCC, meanwhile, has treated the flag and ahu separately. The campus consulted with its Native Hawaiian council, which determined removing the flag — considered a “form of free speech” — would not be disrespectful of Hawaiian culture, spokesman Thatcher Moats said in an email.
http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/loc...le-two-ahu
University of Hawaii at Hilo and Hawaii Community College have received numerous complaints over the ahu from students, faculty, community members and veterans who say they feel disrespected by the sight of the flags hanging upside-down, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported (http://bit.ly/2rZFfYO) today.
The students responsible for the structures are members of a statewide group known as Ahahui Hae Hawaii, or the Hawaiian Flag Society.
Group members built them in response to student arrests on Mauna Kea two years ago and say the upside down flags are an internationally recognized symbol of a nation in distress, said group leader Kalaniakea Wilson.
UH Hilo administrators have no plans to remove the flag on an ahu, said Interim Executive Assistant to the Chancellor Gail Makuakane-Lundin.
Leaders at Hawaii Community College, located near UH Hilo, have chosen to remove the flags but not the stone altars after consulting with its Native Hawaiian council. The council determined that the flag is a form of free speech and its removal would not be offensive to Hawaiian culture.
In this case it seems to me the ahu is also just an expression of free speech too. Apparently this has been happening around the island though in other random public spaces:
He said students also constructed inverted-flag ahu at UH-Manoa and Kauai Community College. He said the group ultimately wants to bring attention to “illegal acts of war from Jan. 16, 1893, by the U.S. government.”
“That’s the student message,” Wilson said. “We need this resolved; 124 years is too long.”
But the ahu haven’t come without some controversy. Last school year, a UH-Hilo student anonymously contacted the Tribune-Herald and said he felt threatened by the UH-Hilo ahu structure’s statement — specifically the inverted flag — and questioned why it was allowed to remain on campus permanently.
HCC also has received “whistle-blower complaints” about its ahu, Chancellor Rachel Solemsaas told the Tribune-Herald recently, which have come from students, faculty, community members and “veterans who feel disrespected.”
Administrators at both campuses say they’ve engaged “extensively” with several of the students who claim responsibility and are now following guidance from their campus Native Hawaiian councils.
UH-Hilo said it has largely left the structure — flag and ahu — in place.
HCC, meanwhile, has treated the flag and ahu separately. The campus consulted with its Native Hawaiian council, which determined removing the flag — considered a “form of free speech” — would not be disrespectful of Hawaiian culture, spokesman Thatcher Moats said in an email.
http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/loc...le-two-ahu
