Center for Oral History Podcast
24
Weaving Voices
plain
2021-04-27T07:03:00+00:00
“This opportunity changed lives for young people.” A place for kids to go. Meals and hot showers. Community services. From its beginnings, Pālama Settlement has been a critical place of healing and recovery, for many communities in transition. What are the kinds of things that really make a difference and help us transform our lives?
On October 22, 1990, President George H.W. Bush ordered the Secretary of Defense to stop bombing Kahoʻolawe. First generation oral histories on the Aloha ʻĀina movement that mobilized thousands across the islands to stop the bombing of Kanaloa Kahoʻolawe, sparked a renaissance of Hawaiian culture, language, arts and sciences, and continues to protect sacred Hawaiian lands. This celebration of the 30th anniversary was in partnership with the UHM Center for Oral History, the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities, Hawaiʻi Public Radio, the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana and DAWSON.
In this episode, we continue to explore communities in transition, by using oral histories to revisit the era of economic change from plantations to tourism, and political change with the return of AJAs [Americans of Japanese Ancestry] and rise of the Democratic Party in the 1950s. In those times of tumult, new political leaders brought forth a strong and different vision for the future of Hawaiʻi, sparking huge transformation.