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Transcript: Charles Nainoa Thompson

Hawaiian islands as miracles of volcanism

[Thompson:]
The land that you are standing on are these miracles of islands that come out of the sea through volcanism, and they are the single most isolated archipelago on the planet, and ecologically they’re miracles because of their isolation. There had been the growth of the ecology of the islands just by the chance of plants and animals getting here. That first canoe that arrived arguably may have been the greatest feat of ocean exploration, but we don’t know the name of the canoe. We don’t even know where it came from. We don’t know who the captain is. We don’t know who the navigator is. What we do know is the chronic pathetic story of our history of a displaced people— second class in your own homeland.