Who Owns Aloha? Hawaii Considers Protections For Native Culture

[TexasTowelie]

Saying it had trademarked the name “Aloha Poke,” a Chicago restaurant chain recently demanded that a Honolulu eatery change its name.


(AP) — Last year, much of Hawaii was shocked to learn a Chicago restaurant chain owner had trademarked the name “Aloha Poke” and wrote to cubed fish shops around the country demanding that they stop using the Hawaiian language moniker for their own eateries. The cease-and-desist letters targeted a downtown Honolulu restaurant and a Native Hawaiian-operated restaurant in Anchorage, among others.

Now, Hawaii lawmakers are considering adopting a resolution calling for the creation of legal protections for Native Hawaiian cultural intellectual property. The effort predates Aloha Poke, but that episode is lending a sense of urgency to a long-festering concern not unfamiliar to native cultures in other parts of the world.

“I was frustrated at the audacity of people from outside of our community using these legal mechanisms to basically bully people from our local community out of utilizing symbols and words that are important to our culture,” said state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, a Native Hawaiian representing Kaneohe and Heeia.

The resolution calls on state agencies and Native Hawaiian organizations to form a task force to develop a legal system to “recognize and protect” Native Hawaiian cultural intellectual property and traditional cultural expressions. It also seeks protections for genetic resources, such as taro, a traditional crop that legend says is an ancestor of the Hawaiian people and that scientists have tried to genetically engineer in the past.

Read more: https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/04/who-owns-aloha-hawaii-considers-protections-for-native-culture/

[Historic NY]

1. The stole Hawaii in the first place....

so everything else is fair game

[4TheArts]

2. Good grief!

What audacity to try to wrest a native term away from indigenous people. Imagine a Florida restaurant naming itself Cincinnati Chili Cafe and wanting restaurants in Ohio to stop using the term. Bothers me anyway what the YS did to Hawaiian culture for a hundred years before annexing the isles in 1895- a sad start to US imperialism .

[mr_lebowski]

3. Considering, you know ... Cincinnati Chili ... that might be something of a favor

[SharonAnn]

4. It's an acquired taste. I like Cincinnati Chili

[4TheArts]

5. Chili and chocolate

What could be better!