Indigenous Peoples and Anti-Globalization Activism: Native Hawaiians and the Asian Development Bank.

In May 2001, 1,500 demonstrators (approximately half of them Native Hawaiians) participated in the March for Global Justice and Indigenous Rights to protest the Asian Development Bank’s 34th annual general meeting being held in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. The march was among a number of events held that week to challenge globalization and the activities of the ADB. Protestors successfully served the bank’s president, Tadao Chino, with a written petition signed by more than sixty non-governmental and people’s organizations from more than ten countries challenging the Bank’s development policies and demanding the cancellation of four controversial projects; this action—which occurred in the open, rather than behind closed doors—indicated “that the days when the ADB could pretty much ignore peoples’ movements and civil society organizations are pretty much over.” Furthermore, “observers remarked that the participation of native peoples and the theme of native people’s rights distinguished the mobilization…from previous protests.” Hawaiian protestors sought to bring attention to their ongoing fight for sovereignty, to dispel the popular corporate myth of Hawai‘i as a “paradise”, and to challenge global capitalism. This paper addresses several questions. First, how does globalization, and the Asian Development Bank in particular, impact the cultural and economic rights of indigenous peoples? Second, how has globalization impacted the indigenous people, culture, and resources of Hawai‘i? Finally, how did protestors demonstrate against the ADB in Hawai‘i and what impact did they have on the 34th annual meeting of the Bank? ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]