The Price of Living In Paradise

When people ask me where I’m from, I am always proud to share that I was born in Hawai’i. I even sometimes joke that it has become a cornerstone of my personality. In my eyes there is nothing more breathtaking than the nature of my home state, not to mention the delicious food (like fresh spicy poke and my grandma’s spam musubi) and mixture of cultures and perspectives. Recommending people places to go sightsee when they visit on vacation was something I would do almost on impulse.

As I have grown older and experienced Hawai’i with a mature set of eyes, my perspective on Hawai’i being a place of paradise has definitely changed. In downtown Honolulu, my grandpa and I would sled down the hills on flattened cardboard boxes. These hills are now covered in tents, where homeless people seek to find refuge from the police. I started to notice signs on the way to the beach that exclaimed “HAOLE, GO HOME!” in bold, black font and Hawai’i state flags flying next to them. Local businesses that had been open for years were shut down and knocked over for luxury condos and hotels. In recent years there have been plenty of Native Hawaiian creators on TikTok and Instagram like Mele (@melemaikalanimakalapua) and Melissa (@mmmeliss_) who speak on issues that their community has been facing for generations, yet are largely being ignored.

The place that I once saw as paradise had actually been crumbling the entire time.

Even as someone who once lived there and stays with family almost every summer break, I had become a tourist myself. I became disconnected to the true spirit of Hawai’i and the most intimate aspects of living there, but also the parts that were not so pretty that needed to be acknowledged.

A Brief History of Hawai’i

Hawai’i was originally discovered and inhabited in 300 CE by settlers from the Marquesas Islands, a remote group of islands located in modern-day French Polynesia. Eventually Tahitians sailed over several centuries later, bringing along plenty of tools, animals and food. The Marquesans and Tahitians combined their rich knowledge of the land, the sea, craftsmanship and farming to build upon their own society. They were cautious to be respectful of their āina and created efficient agricultural and irrigation systems that did not disrupt the surrounding wildlife. They would govern themselves under the kapu system, a strict set of rules derived from mythology and religion. Their culture was exclusively maintained through oral traditions, such as chanting, hula (dance), and storytelling. We refer to these early inhabitants and their descendants today as kānaka maoli, meaning “native person.”

English Captain James Cook’s arrival on the island of Kaua’i in 1778 was the first ever recorded contact Hawai’i had with the Europeans. He and his crew initially had a positive reception as some Hawaiians believed that Cook was the manifestation of the deity Lono, the god of peace and growth. However, after Hawaiians noticed that their community had been ravaged by unknown illness and disease, they realized the settlers were merely mortals and began to resent Cook’s presence on the island. One positive thing that Cook did was record written accounts of his time in Hawai’i and took notes on cultural practices and attitudes from a Western lens. However, his visit mostly marked the beginning of the end for Hawai’i as an independent civilization. The diseases that Cook and later Christian missionaries had unintentionally introduced ended up wiping out more than 80% of the Hawaiian population within a century and resulted in a massive change in societal structure and harmony.

Cook’s death initiated increased levels of in-fighting amongst Hawaiian chiefs. King Kamehameha was the first King of the Hawaiian Islands. After a series of battles he won against other Hawaiian chiefs, he managed to unite all of the islands together as one nation: the Kingdom of Hawai’i. PBS reported that the rulers who followed him made great strides in terms of progress in Hawaiian society: Hawai’i would gain international recognition as an independent nation, the literacy rate would grow to 91-94% in less than 15 years, and electricity for the royal palace and private homes were installed 5 years before the White House. Hawaiian practices such as hula, genealogy, traditional healing, and storytelling would be revived during this cultural renaissance.

There was still strife during this time of progress. The missionaries who resided on the islands would plot against Hawaiian royalty under the premise that Hawaiians were savages and unfit to rule. They wanted to only give American and European business parties political power, not to mention their goal to establish Christian values as the foundation of society. Voting rights were only granted to those who already owned land, which excluded a good chunk of Hawaiians. This all came to fruition when the missionaries overthrew King Kalākua in 1887 and forced the king to sign their own constitution, formally called the Bayonet Constitution.

Queen Liliuokalani was the last reigning monarch of Hawai’i. After speaking with multiple citizens who were distressed due to the Bayonet Constitution, she decided that she would draft a counter-constitution. Haole businessmen heard about her plan and overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom with the help of the U.S. Navy in 1893. Sanford B. Dole–an American lawyer and jurist–would be named president in 1894. Despite efforts among Hawaiians to protest against annexation, Hawai’i officially became a U.S. territory in 1898.

After the takeover, multiple changes took place. Their agricultural systems were hijacked and restructured, which radically changed Native Hawaiian diets and disrupted the wildlife. Haoles owned sugarcane and pineapple plantations where Native Hawaiians and immigrants from Japan, China, the Philippines, Korea, and Portugal would work. The haole leaders would force Native Hawaiian and immigrant kids to assimilate to Western standards through the education system. If Native Hawaiians were caught taking part in their ancestral practices, they would be heavily penalized. This would prove to be a massive challenge to the Native Hawaiian community since most of their traditions were not written or visual; it would be difficult to accurately record.

The Current State of Hawai’i

My uncle and I were waiting in the turn lane on the intersection of Haiku Road and Kamehameha Highway in Kaneohe, the town my family has lived in for decades on the island of O’ahu. We were tasked with going to the nearby Safeway to pick up some groceries for dinner.

I turned my head to the Safeway parking lot as the car lurched forward. What I saw next boggled my mind: there were at least six or seven white people loading up their cars, walking around, driving back home, just minding their own business. If Kaneohe were anything like Waikiki or Kailua, I wouldn’t have thought about this twice. Kaneohe is very different from those touristy spots. It is not lively at all and is rainy a lot of the time since it’s on the Windward side of the island. When I was growing up (and even until a couple of years ago), the only people I would see were mostly Asians and a few Polynesians. Locals. Most of the houses were built in the 1960’s to 1970’s and while there were a few big nationwide chains, most of the restaurants and businesses were local. The only thing I thought could explain this was the Marine Corps base nearby, but even then they have a base exchange with a massive supermarket and department store, so they could buy everything there.

“Hey, Uncle Dan, since when did Kaneohe have so many haoles?” I asked as we drove back to the house. He chuckled.

“Caity, it’s so funny you mention that. There’s been a decent amount coming over from the mainland. I talked to a couple that just moved in, nice people. They have a Tesla. Bought the house for a million bucks. Crazy, right?”

It really was not crazy to imagine at all. According to Zillow, the average price of a home in O’ahu is a whopping $834,569 while in Florida the average is $377,706. My own grandma’s house is valued at almost one million dollars on Zillow even though it’s a single story home, only has air conditioning in two rooms and was built sixty years ago. It was only valued at $559,600 ten years ago. These prices seem even wilder when you look up the average household income in Hawai’i, which is around $88,000. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that, on average, an individual’s annual income in Hawai’i falls around $39,000. To top all of this off, Hawai’i has the highest cost of living rate in the country, ranked 184 out of 200 points. Not only is it the most expensive state to live in, but the average household income can barely support mortgage payments, groceries, healthcare, and other essential costs.

I snort. “But why Kaneohe of all places?”

“Cuz, Kailua is too expensive now! Kaneohe is the next best spot. It’s got a nice view. Schools here are decent. People are moving out anyways…” He went on to explain more, but I zoned out for the rest of the ride. Hearing that Kaneohe was simply a runner up to Kailua just for convenience and affordability made me feel…empty. Kailua had just gained a Target in 2015 and a Whole Foods in 2012, officially sealing the gentrification deal. Imagining a point in time where Kaneohe ends up like Kailua–heavily touristy, crowded, and pricey–felt like getting punched in the gut.

The possibility of my family and thousands of other people’s childhood memories and property being erased at the hands of some rich mainland or foreign investor made my skin crawl.

Hawaii News Now reported that as of 2015, 24 percent of homes sold in Hawai’i went to U.S. mainlanders and 4 percent were purchased by foreign citizens. While this may not seem like that much, it is simply marking the beginning of a trend in purchasing. As homes and condos in Hawai’i are growing more expensive, it is due to the external demand to live there. Hawai’i is already limited in terms of land, imports, and utilities such as water and electricity. If the average salary in Hawai’i is barely even $40,000 and the recommended salary to live there is around $120,000, locals are screwed.

These high costs affect certain populations more than others. Researcher Noah Jordan Magbual found that Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders (NHPI) only consist of 11.7% of Hawaii’s population yet have a poverty rate of 15.4%. It is even more grim that out of all the homeless people living on O’ahu, 50% identify as NHPI. Now NHPI are being forced to relocate to the mainland even when they want to stay in their rightful homeland. Another notch in the belt of humiliations and loss that the Native Hawaiians have faced since their wrongful occupation began.

The tourism industry and the housing situation work hand in hand. Magbual emphasizes the role of Hawaii’s largest industry as being a disguise for neo colonial ideology that keeps Native Hawaiians disenfranchised. The overwhelming presence of hotels, condos, and mansions on the shoreline in addition to vacation rental units (VRUs) like AirBnb spots take up even more space for what could be homes for NHPI.

The tourism industry also upholds harmful stereotypes about Hawaiians. Everywhere you go in Waikiki or other touristy areas, you see caricatures of Native Hawaiians in grass skirts standing outside of grass huts, tourists wearing flimsy, plastic flower leis and the nearly identical, generic ukulele music being blasted in the streets by 12 different ABC Stores. Pono Sugunama– a Utah State University honors student–writes in his thesis covering the portrayal of NHPI in film that Native Hawaiians are portrayed as large, lazy people who sing and play ukulele all day. The women are viewed as hypersexual, voluptuous hula dancers. One common element is the notion that Native Hawaiians welcome haoles with open arms, always extending the spirit of aloha, reducing them to beings that are forever consenting and have no will of their own, outside of what haoles want.

Melissa Akoni (@mmmeliss_ on TikTok and Instagram) explains this phenomenon to journalist W. Kamau Bell on his television show United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell:

“If you’re touristing, you are directly contributing to an industry that commodifies and bastardizes our culture, uses us as an aesthetic, tells us what parts of us are pretty, but we’re your servers. We’re here to entertain you, we’re here to take care of you, and you know… just give, give, give, but you don’t need to give anything back!”

Some people believe that there is an alternative to traditional tourism, dubbed “sustainable tourism.” Proponents of this tourism model assert that by “traveling consciously” and going to a few local businesses during a trip will be dramatically different for the environment and the people living in Hawai’i. However, I would argue that not going at all would be the most ethical option. Native Hawaiians are online begging people to not come and giving them multiple, fact-supported reasons. Sage Crystal notes in their essay Please, Don’t Move To Hawai’i: “Each unnecessary interaction drives up the cost of living and resources for those living there, and droves of long-time residents are forced to leave because of the cost of living.”

If someone really would like to support Hawai’i in an ethical way, either do it from a distance and donate to Native Hawaiian organizations or purchase from Native Hawaiian businesses online.

Of course, it would be impossible for all tourists to know about these issues and the historical context that surrounds them. Native Hawaiian history was not adequately taught in plenty of places (including Hawai’i for a long period of time). Thankfully, social media has been a huge help in spreading the word on these topics and has persuaded many to call off their trips. I myself have learned plenty of important things from social media and it has inspired me to research more into Hawaiian history and inform myself on issues that I was not exposed to during my time in Hawai’i. While the present looks bleak, hopefully the future will be a bit brighter for Native Hawaiians–and not because of the new fluorescent Target sign shining across the street.

Vocabulary List

āina: land

aloha: can be used as a greeting or as a word for love, affection, peace, compassion, or mercy

haole (HOWLY): foreigner (used commonly to refer to white people)

spam musubi (MOO-SOO-BEE): a local take on Japanese omusubi. Nori, white rice, and fried spam are the foundational ingredients. Some people (i.e. me) like to add in furikake and teriyaki sauce; scrambled egg is another common ingredient.

poke (PO-KEH): a hawaiian dish made from tuna, soy sauce, Hawaiian sea salt, green onions, Maui onions, rice, and limu.