Her daughter learns to play the ukulele. He once acted with Somewhere over the rainbow notes. The author of this version was Israel Kamakawiwo?ole. As you see, Mr Israel’s last name is quite special to us. So special that “Cira, this is not an English surname, maybe behind this last name is some story that interests you,” I thought. And yes, it seems that my intuitions are sometimes right.

Israel is a Hawaiian of 'Kamakawaiwo' and its life is a good example to observe the trajectories of the original Hawaiians. Her mother was the manager of the nightclub Wakiki, her father was the goalkeeper, and she ran the sanitation truck at the American military base, the famous Pearl Harbor. With music from Kamakawaiwo, he was part of the Hawaiian cultural renaissance of the 1960s and 1970s. Mix contemporary and traditional styles, with great prestige in Hawaii and the United States. He was a defender of Hawaiian rights and boosted the country’s independence. He died at the age of 38. This is also very typical in Hawaii; the original Hawaiians have less life expectancy than whites because they are secondary citizens on their own island.

But to better understand this little biography, we have to talk about colonialism suffered by Hawaii. A few years ago, I didn't know much about Hawaii, a paradise for tourists, which had a close relationship with the United States. Soon after I've known that ukulele is its typical instrument, that the famous Pearl Harbor military base is located on those islands, and, ah!, the first part of Wikipedia's name, the word wiki, means "fast" in Hawaiian language. And of course they're surf inventors. However, in recent years I have known other things. When I started to get interested in the Native American struggle for their languages, Hawaii begins to appear. I've learned that for Native Americans, the struggle for the Hawaiian language is an example. I must confess that my first reaction was, "Ah! But are there still indigenous people in Hawaii? Are they not fully assimilated? Do they have their own language?”

I will tell you what I learned about the people of Israel Kamakawaiwo. Hawaiians were organized as kingdoms but since the arrival of the English, although with some autonomy, they have always been under the influence of the English and/or American. In 1893, Queen Lili'oukalani wanted to implement a series of reforms to achieve the autonomy of the archipelago, but the American army broke in and took the queen off. There the soldiers stopped and there they continued to this day. The queen, which was dethroned, has become a symbol for Hawaiian independentists.

Since 1893, therefore, these islands were territories annexed to the United States, without political autonomy for many years, until, thanks to the effort and struggle of the natives, in 1959, it was granted the same category as the other states that make up the United States. I think that brought good and bad things. The difference is that, from then on, the tourist destination became a very important goal that seriously affected the ecological and economic health of the archipelago. The truth is that without being a state, it might have been worse. In any case, the truth is that nowadays tourist companies treat their natives as secondary citizens: tourists are the new kings. The good thing about having a state is that they are using all the loopholes that leave them EE.UU. They have, for example, managed to make their official language their language. It is the only state in the United States that in addition to English has another official language.

This has allowed them to open schools in their own language and have a university, so you can say that they are shaping intelligence and the will to move forward. But there are few, very few, and the tongue is about to die. In 2016, there were 18,610 speakers. A nice article from National Geographic read the following expression from university professor N. Ha'alilio Solomon: "It takes about 100,000 speakers for the language to be sure of its survival. It is about being enough to transmit the language to the next generation so that the children use it among themselves and in all areas of life, to express all thoughts, needs and desires". I mean, 81,390 other speakers, there's a lot of work to do. They also know that without that they have no future. Through language, identity is strengthened, and thanks to a strong identity, the courage and the desire to defend their land will come.

There is no other magic formula and its inhabitants are clear about it. Of course, Hawaiian schools are not only those of the "Hawaiian ethnicity", but the doors of these schools are open, after the conquest of Europe, to the citizens who have come to the islands and have expanded the stock exchange of secondary citizens and, in general, to all those who want to be part of something nice. They want to make this territory a better country, and they realize that this is not possible if they surrender to English, without regaining cultural dignity.