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Thurston Twigg-Smith joined three critics in a live discussion of his recently published book, "Hawaiian Sovereignty: Do the Facts Matter?" The author summarised its main claims: that the sovereignty movement rests on historical revisionism, that land was never stolen from native Hawaiians, that Queen Liliuokalani's own actions contributed to the overthrow, and that the movement was building expectations it could not deliver, with a risk of social unrest. Mahealani Kamauʻu, executive director of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, called the book hostile and factually wrong, and rejected its suggestion that sovereignty advocates were inclined toward violence. Jon Van Dyke, a law professor at the University of Hawaii, disputed Twigg-Smith's assertion that the 1993 Apology Resolution lacks the force of law. Walter Heen, a retired appellate court judge, acknowledged that the book added to public dialogue but observed that historical interpretation depends on one's vantage point. Samuel P. King, a senior United States district court judge, had reviewed the book in that morning's newspaper as a must-read.
Transcript
Read or download the full transcript (.txt). Speaker labels were assigned automatically and may contain errors.
Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
