Maoli

Maoli

Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians; Hawaiian: kānaka, kānaka ʻōiwi, kānaka maoli, and Hawaiʻi maoli) are the indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaii was settled at least 800 years ago with the voyage of Polynesians from the Society Islands. The settlers gradually became detached from their original homeland and developed a distinct Hawaiian culture and identity in their new isolated home. That included the creation of new religious and cultural structures, mostly in response to the new living environment and the need for a structured belief system through which to pass on knowledge. Hence, the Hawaiian religion focuses on ways to live and relate to the land and instills a sense of communal living as well as a specialized spatial awareness. The Hawaiian Kingdom was formed in 1795, when Kamehameha the Great, of the independent island of Hawaiʻi, conquered the independent islands of Oʻahu, Maui, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi and unified them. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauaʻi and Niʻihau joined the Kingdom. The Kingdom saw an influx of immigrants from the United States and Asia. The Kingdom became a Republic following its overthrow in 1893, and was annexed by the United States in 1898. An ongoing Hawaiian sovereignty movement exists seeking autonomy or independence for the state of Hawaii. In the 2010 U.S. census, People with Native Hawaiian ancestry reported as residents in all 50 of the U.S. States, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Within the U.S. in 2010 540,013 residents reported Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander alone in 2010, of which 135,422 lived in the State of Hawaii. In the United States overall, 1.2 million people identified as Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, either alone or in combination with one or more other races. The Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander population was one of the fastest-growing race groups between 2000 and 2010 in the United States.

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