Remembering Kihei Soli Niheu by Amelia Gora

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Kihei “Soli” Niheu is a Hawaiian National who has been at the forefront of Hawaiian struggles for four decades. Learning much from the struggles of the sixties for Native American, Black, Chicano and other oppressed peoples, Soli began to question the state of his people.

When he returned to Hawai?i after studying in San Jose, California, Soli became a spokesperson for his Ni‘ihau ‘ohana and involved himself in the antiwar protests and the struggles for ethnic studies on the University of Hawai?i at Manoa campus.

He was a founder of Kokua Hawai‘i, a group that was influential in organizing against the evictions of Kalama Valley residents, actions that many mark as the reemergence of Hawaiian activism. Soli then became a lead member of HULI (Hawaiians United for Liberation and Independence) and has consistently represented Ka Pae ?Aina ?o Hawai?i with the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific movement. A father and grandfather, “Papa Soli,” as he is affectionately known, continues to fight for his people.

He is a founding member of Hui Pu, a diverse coalition of Hawaiians who organized to protect self-determination and oppose the model of federal recognition that Niheu and others believe is a sham of pseudo-sovereignty.