Both U.S. military personnel and tourists are a familiar sight in Hawaii. Militarism and tourism, bound together as cause and effect, control and occupy the island. Militarism’s infusion and protection of capital make tourism a safer colonial apparatus. Tourists, on the other hand, establish a certain ideological, political, and cultural order that normalizes the presence of the military, priorities it needs, and defends its central role in defining “national security”. The military and tourism are together erasing the presence of the ea.
What if ea is brought back to the site and juxtaposed with military and tourism. What would happen if the fishponds, water stream, and seashore are restored in this highly urbanized area? The juxtaposition of military, tourism, and EA will enlarge the ironic and tough situation brought by the colonization of the site and will hand the decolonization right to the restored nature. Damage cannot be reversed, but consciousness can be brought back, and so can the ahupua system.
