Waatea Team #international Kanaka Maoli Voices Call for Justice as the Impacts of Hawaiʻi’s Overthrow EndureRole Funding:Respected Kanaka Maoli educator and activist Imaikalani “Imai” Winchester of Oʻahu is urging deeper understanding of the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the ongoing impacts of U.S. occupation, saying the trauma of dispossession is not a distant history-but a lived reality for many Hawaiians today. While statehood is commonly framed as settled history, he says many Kanaka Maoli continue to view it as the outcome of an illegal process that ignored Hawaiian consent and sovereignty. Each year, thousands gather for commemorative events such as the Onipaʻa march to remember the 1893 overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani. “What happened to Hawaiʻi can happen anywhere when power goes unchecked.”Despite the weight of U.S. political and military presence in Hawaiʻi, Winchester says Kanaka Maoli continue to assert agency through education, cultural resurgence, and grassroots resistance. For Kanaka Maoli, he says, the path forward is clear: truth-telling, unity, and an unwavering commitment to sovereignty grounded in culture, history, and aloha ʻāina.