LAS VEGAS — Philip Swain vaulted forward from the audience when the kumu teaching the oli workshop needed to have “‘a’e a’e” demonstrated.

Swain adroitly leapt high off a chair demonstrating the motion of leaping upward and forward as one would do from a dock or shore onto a canoe, which is what “‘a’e a’e” means. It’s a move he learned growing up on Kauai.

Swain now lives in Colorado. He’s one of the 370,000 Native Hawaiians living outside of Hawaii. He’s also among those struggling to understand the new reality that he’s in a place where he’s rarely found himself: a majority. There are now 310,000 Native Hawaiians living in Hawaii. The fact that more live on the mainland is the reason the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement held its conference in Las Vegas this week. 

Swain has been president of the Hawaiian Civic Club of Colorado. After growing up on Kauai, he graduated from Kamehameha Schools in 1975. However, his wife was from Utah and they left Hawaii when their children were ready to go to school. 

Swain’s voice is filled with emotion when he speaks about Hawaii. He acknowledges the tension that exists between the communities.

“I do feel there’s an undercurrent that Hawaiians in Hawaii think that Hawaiians on the mainland are not equal to them in their love for Hawaii, or are not the same because they really don’t live there and therefore experience the problems that Hawaii experiences,” he said.

He added that sometimes Hawaiians living on the mainland “have this far deeper aloha because they’re not there. I mean, it is deep. It’s deep for all of us. I was born, raised, and went to Kamehameha Schools, so I am attached in many ways to Hawaii, but for me not to be considered part of Hawaii is wrong.” 

On Wednesday morning, a panel at the conference directly addressed the division between those who left and those who stayed.

CNHA’s Chief Executive Officer Kuhio Lewis moderated a panel titled “Should Mainland Hawaiians Be Part of the Lahui?” that steered directly into the divide. He started the panel by saying: “I put this discussion on the agenda because I thought it’s an important conversation that we need to have. There’s certain perspectives back home that I feel need to be addressed and I decided to moderate this panel myself.”

There was debate about the words used in the title of the panel. First, many Native Hawaiians eschew using the word “mainland” to refer to the continental U.S.; Hawaii, their ancestral home, is their “mainland.” The word “Lahui” as a term for nation, tribe or race in regard to Native Hawaiians was also questioned. I’m glad “Is” wasn’t in the title so at least one Clintonian rabbit hole was avoided. In another iteration, the panel could have been titled “Continent vs. Mainland.”

After the four Native Hawaiians living outside of Hawaii told their stories, Kehau Watson of Aina Momona was the only panelist still living in Hawaii.

“I would rather be houseless in Hawaii than ever moving from my homeland. It’s not happening. And I know you moved,” Watson said to the other panelists. “To me, our first obligation is to keep our ohana at home.”

The language can be difficult, but it’s an honesty most Native Hawaiians have heard from their aunties and uncles. 

Cece Cullen was in the audience for the panel discussion. She was raised in Kahaluu and has become the go-to person for the media for what life is like for Native Hawaiians in Las Vegas. She and her husband were the first homeowners in their families when they closed on a house in June 2020.

She referred to Kumu Hina Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, the CNHA’s cultural ambassador, who was omnipresent at the conference.

“Yesterday, Kumu Hina made me feel like a coward for leaving our island home, but at the same time, she can build me up so quick to be empowered to make sure I know what my role is here,” Cullen said. “I was crying yesterday because she said, ‘If you know for you, who you are and what your intentions are, it’s okay.’ Right now my intention, no doubt, is to move home. That’s the ultimate goal.”

Tasha Kama, a Maui County Council member in the audience, appreciated that the tough conversation was being had.

“I don’t feel offended by this conversation and I don’t feel offended by people from the mainland saying: ‘Well, you guys shouldn’t be mad at me cause I had to leave, right? Cause economically I couldn’t make it. So you want me to stay home and suffer, right? Or you want to suffer, you stay home, but I need to do the best I can for my family.’ So they move, right? So having these conversations helps us understand and be compassionate.”

Kama has several children living in Hawaii along with Manhattan, Oregon and Washington.

“The majority are living in Hawaii, but they should all be home,” she said.

That repeated kahea, or call, at the conference was for Native Hawaiians living outside of Hawaii to return to the islands. However, for artists like Patrick Makuakane, there are simply too many opportunities keeping him from returning.

“One of the great things about living in San Francisco and having a halau is that we’re funded by the city, by the state, by corporations. I wish halaus in Hawaii had that opportunity but obviously it’s difficult cause there’s so many of them.”

Still there’s a sense among many Native Hawaiians that they are not rooted and they’re living on land taken from someone else (the conference opened with a ceremony acknowledging that the Paiute tribe are the Indigenous people of Las Vegas.)

“We know we are temporary here, I feel I’m temporary,” said Tieri Pa’ahana Bissen, a 20-year Las Vegas resident who left Hawaii in 1968. “I myself want to go home and I have plans to go home as soon as I can, but I want to go not to drain Hawaii, I want to bring things back with me to enhance Hawaii.”

And what happens upon a return is the concern for Native Hawaiians like Cullen.

“What I’m struggling with as a kanaka maoli who does all these things in (Las Vegas) is, will it be valued if I go back home, truly valued and validated?” asked Cullen. “Because (in Las Vegas) I walk around and they’re like, oh, here’s CeCe. She’s going to oli, she’s going to dance hula, she’s going to do all these things. But when I go home, everyone’s doing these things.”

Cullen was at continental speed and I feel bad that I didn’t let her off the hook. Less than a year ago, I was also a Native Hawaiian living outside of Hawaii. I don’t think she shouldn’t be worried. She’ll fit in. That’s the rare privilege for a Native Hawaiian. From personal and familial experience, I’m sure she’ll be accepted. Just as Swain would be. 

Swain demonstrated an inherent sense that is called ma’a. Besides two of Hawaii’s specialities, hula and paddling, the greatest requirements for its participants is to harmonize.

They want to know that they can go home. That’s the repeated message from Native Hawaiians in Hawaii to Native Hawaiians living away from Hawaii: “Come home. There’s a place for you, because we need you.”