“Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you."
- Margery Williams The Velveteen Rabbit
As an apparently utterly caucasion child growing up right next door to a cosmopolitan metropolitan city, I used to mourn my lack of color. In those early years I longed for something larger than myself to belong to, a group of people easily distinguishable from the rest of us, and possessed of a heritage of dance and costumery. I felt fate had consigned me to the heap of the least interesting people on the planet.
And yet, because I was lucky enough to grow up in the time and place I did, with parents who were educators both by profession and by having absorbed that role as self, I had the great good fortune to complete my undergraduate education at one of the finest universities on earth. While there, the world opened to me. I could study literally any discipline, drill down to the core of existence if I so chose. And I chose philosophy, social science, psychology; what makes us the way we are, how we interact, why we do the things we do.
And all that time, I continued to search for who I was. Why was I here? Where did I fit in? Did I have any talents at all to offer up to the world, that justified my existence? I participated in the political world around me. It was rich. By the political world, I refer to the movements of all sorts growing like weeds in the grass. There was the new wave of Christianity surging forth as surely as the daisy chain wearing flower children with their peace signs. There was the anti - war movement. there was People's Park, the taking back of land owned by the university for the use of street people who had come to our university town because it was in some ways the center of action seeking equal rights for all, amongst other things.
Time swept me along on its inevitable tide, and as I grew into my skin, and my focus became more allocentric, I became my own true self. It was a thing that happened to me.
Now, I am living in the midst of a culture seeking identity. Hawaii, look at yourself. Kanaka maoli, look around you. We are a diverse people. We bring the richness of many cultures together. When I came to this island, I fell into a culture steeped in aloha. The fact that my skin is light and freckled, my build medium light and my hair thin and yellowish did not seem to matter to anyone. Although I wasn't concerned as I once had been about such things, it was so fine to feel so welcome. The spirit of aloha included me in everything I chose to pursue, whether hula and lauhala weaving or body surfing and snorkeling. There were people everywhere who welcomed me, and they were all my people, whether we looked something alike or not. And the culture! We have hula kahiko in the park, Sondheim and Rogers and Hammerstein in the theater, Cyril Pahinui and Amy Hanaiali'i, Jeff Peterson and jazz at the Blue Dragon, living history at Imiloa and traveling the globe via Hokulea and the voyagers. This diversity is the authenticity of Hawaii. It is undeniable. It is time to honor who we inarguably are - a mixed people at the frontier of discovery beyond just ourselves.
Hawaii has become what it is today through what has happened here, on this land. Hawaii has been chosen for certain roles in the world by outsiders. Truly Hawaii, everyone came to you from somewhere else. For yourself, you have chosen being a host to people passing through as your main enterprise. Astronomers seeking the best location for viewing what happens outside our own world have chosen Mauna Kea. What has happened to Hawaii is an identity has formed as home to an array of observatories whose role is critical in a community that spans the globe and includes universities and countries who have chosen to participate. Astronomy is about the elusive concept we call world peace. By its nature it is about cooperation and equality.
Why the Mickey Mouse ears, then? We choose our personal expression based upon our unique sense of what matters. For some, the happiest place on earth is represented by a mouse with round ears. For others, maybe a hammock on a tropical beach at sunset comes closer… For some, there is a fervent desire to bring back one's ancestral home, as a vibrant living identity in the present world. Meantime, the diversity represented by Hawaii is an expression of the evolution of humanity, and that combined culture is most manifestly expressed in this island's contribution to space science. With the evolution of that science here on this island, children growing up here will have the same amazing opportunities I had in a privileged enclave when a first rate university education did not cause a life long monetary debt. We are lucky beyond imagining to have such an opportunity at hand on our tiny island.
The identity of Hawaii is expressed in the diversity of those peoples who make it home. Hawaii's spirit of aloha has caused it to rise up as a place where people from everywhere feel the love of inclusivity, the human warmth that expresses itself like the tropical breezes that bring our scented air in welcome to all who step onto our land.
There is no need to declare that the voice of Hawaiian authenticity objects to the expression of space science on Mauna Kea. Yes, if your true authentic self seeks identity in a culture of Hawaiian sovereignty, put your energies there. But do not deny those who share this island their rootedness and cultural and yes, scientific expressions of belonging to this place. The true authentic warrior does not need to identify an enemy, an other, but emerges as a powerful manifestion of truth of being. We all belong to this place, and this place, to us.
