Without Apologies
Season 1
Radiant Womb
Eros and Ash
by Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua and Kahunawai Wright
In episode 3, Haunani-Kay Trask joins the struggle to stop the US Navy’s bombing of Kaho‘olawe. From 1978 through the early 1980s, Trask played a central role in the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana (PKO), when the ʻOhana secured regular access visits to the island. Haunani-Kay knew she could bring her organizing experience, her education, and her voice to the movement. She worked to limit the Navy’s political and legal authority over Kaho‘olawe, also known as Kohemālamalama o Kanaloa. In organizing with the PKO, she discovered the love she had been seeking throughout her time away from home: aloha ‘āina. And as she learned about aloha ‘āina from fellow defenders of Kaho‘olawe, she helped her people see that this movement was not only about protecting one island but about advancing an alternative to militarization and imperialism.
For eight years, the people's movements in Madison were Haunani-Kay Trask's greatest teachers. She earned three degrees at the University of Wisconsin, but Haunani learned even more from the marches, the sit-ins and organizing meetings. Episode 2 tells about the student strikes, anti-war protests, and feminist movements that shaped Haunani-Kay more profoundly than her classes. In Eros & Ash, we tell the story of a young bride encountering the revolutionary moment of 1969; a graduate student organizer leading the way for feminist studies; and an emerging author finding herself amid the despair of living under a repressive dictatorship in Romania. All Haunani-Kay — years before she became the fearless voice you heard in Episode 1.
Episode 1 of Without Apologies, a podcast series that brings you the voice, the power, and the political analysis of Kumu Haunani-Kay Trask. Each episode focuses on one of her speeches and the story behind it. Our journey opens with the speech Dr. Trask is best known for, delivered at ʻOnipaʻa 1993—the centennial commemoration of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom—where she declared, "We are not American!"
In 1991, faculty in the University of Hawaiʻi Philosophy department were calling for Professor Haunani-Kay Trask to be fired. They were upset about a scathing op-ed she had written in the University's student newspaper Ka Leo o Hawaiʻi. But, she refused to be silent. Instead, she spoke even more powerfully. It was February 7, 1991 at a forum on the politics of academic freedom and white supremacy. In this speech, Kumu Haunani-Kay recounts a history of the attempted genocide of Kanaka Hawaiʻi, and she connects that history with attempts to expunge Native Hawaiian voices from the campus.
Between our main, narrative episodes, we’re sharing recordings of some of Dr. Trask’s full-length speeches, so you can hear her in her own voice, speaking to you from the archives. This archival episode features Kumu Haunani-Kay’s most well-known speech, delivered on January 17, 1993. Some folks call it the “We are not American!” speech, for its most famous line. Dr. Trask repeated this refrain again and again as she addressed our lāhui at the centennial commemoration of the illegal overthrow. Twenty thousand gathered on the grounds of ʻIolani Palace. And Kumu Haunani-Kay stepped up to the mic to remind us who we are—and who we are not. The archival footage of this speech is from Nā Maka o ka ʻĀina.
A new podcast bringing you the voice, the power, and the political analysis of Kumu Haunani-Kay Trask, one of the most prominent Hawaiian scholars and leaders of the 20th century. Hosted by Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua and Kahunawai Wright, Without Apologies features some of Dr. Trask's unforgettable speeches and the stories behind them. Listen, as Kumu Haunani’s voice resounds like a sharkskin drum, without apologies. Coming soon wherever you listen to podcasts.