From the early political struggles of the Hawaiian Kingdom to the wide network of cultural advocates today, the story of Hawaiian civic organization is one of continuity, strategy and kuleana over generations.
In the 19th century, organizations such as Hui Kālaiʻāina and Hui Aloha ʻĀina mobilized tens of thousands of Kānaka Maoli to defend constitutional governance, national sovereignty and the authority of the Hawaiian Kingdom. These groups understood politics as a responsibility. Petitions, public meetings and newspapers were tools for collective survival. Even after the overthrow, this political consciousness did not disappear.
In 1914, that lineage continued with the formation of ʻAhahui Puʻuhonua o nā Hawaiʻi, known in English as the Hawaiian Protective Association.
Organized under the leadership of Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole, alongside other Native Hawaiian political leaders, the association sought to protect Hawaiian welfare during the early Territorial period. It addressed education, health, land loss and economic marginalization, and it helped lay the groundwork for the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act.
More than a policy group, it was an assertion that Kānaka Maoli would continue to organize themselves, speak collectively, and advocate for their people even within a colonial system imposed upon them.
By 1917, Kūhiō recognized another crisis unfolding alongside political dispossession: Hawaiian language and cultural practice were rapidly fading.
English-only schooling, urbanization and social pressure had disconnected many Kānaka Maoli from ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, traditional knowledge, history and one another. Kānaka Maoli were navigating a society that devalued their identity while demanding their assimilation.
Kānaka Maoli, including himself, were feeling invisible in their own homeland. Kūhiō understood that political advocacy without cultural grounding would not be enough. The survival of the lāhui required institutions that could restore confidence, transmit knowledge, and cultivate leadership rooted in Hawaiian values.
In 1918, Prince Kūhiō and his colleagues established what became the first Hawaiian Civic Club. The vision was intentional. The clubs would be nonpartisan and nonsectarian.
Judge Alexander G.M. Robertson recounts that “... He [Prince Kūhiō] wanted Hawaiians to be educated. He wanted them to elevate each other. He wanted to instill in and promote the economic, intellectual, social status, and wellbeing of Hawaiians in his community and he wanted sincerely to see Hawaiʻi’s culture to be forever preserved, not only for the Hawaiian but for all Hawaiʻi.”
The Hawaiian Civic Club movement was meant to be a place where Kānaka Maoli could learn how government worked, practice leadership, and stand accountable to their people. In other words, these clubs were created so Kānaka Maoli would not disappear from public life, but would be seen, heard and uplifted.
Many Hawaiian Civic Clubs have also grown into welcoming spaces where non-Hawaiians, particularly those with Hawaiian family ties or a sincere commitment to learning, can engage respectfully with Hawaiian history, values and cultural practices.
More than a century later, that vision endures. Currently, the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs includes about 60 clubs and nearly 4,000 members across Hawaiʻi and the continent. Clubs provide scholarships, mentor youth, steward wahi pana, restore loʻi and fishponds and host cultural education programs. They organize conventions, commemorations, teach protocol, and create spaces where Hawaiian language and practice are lived rather than archived.
On the continent, civic clubs anchor diaspora communities, offering Kānaka Maoli far from home a place to gather, remember, and act together as Kānaka Maoli.
This work takes place inside a political system created through the illegal overthrow and maintained through occupation. Civic engagement within that system does not negate the reality of Hawaiian nationhood. But it is a strategy for survival, harm reduction, capacity building and self-government.
Informed political participation allows Kānaka Maoli to protect land, language and community while preparing leaders who understand law, policy and networking.
From Hui Kalaiʻāina to ʻAhahui Puʻuhonua o nā Hawaiʻi to the Hawaiian civic clubs of today, Hawaiian political organization has always been an expression of kuleana. The Hawaiian civic clubs carry that responsibility forward. They care for place, for people, for language and for memory.
They remind us that no matter the form of government, Kānaka Maoli have never stopped governing ourselves, organizing our communities and shaping our future.
This article is reprinted with permission from OHA's Ka Wai Ola newspaper: "Civic engagement does not negate nationhood" by Adam Keawe Manalo-Camp, in its February 2026 issue, Vol. 43 No. 2. Read more at kawaiola.news.
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