Aloha Poke dispute may Worsen

Aloha Poke dispute may Worsen

Last year, Hawaii was left in shock when it learned that a Chicago restaurant chain trademarked the name “Aloha Poke” and demanded other shops around the country to stop using the name for their restaurants. Now, Hawaii lawmakers are considering adopting a resolution calling for the creation of legal protections for Native Hawaiian cultural, intellectual property. State Senator Jarret Keohokalole said, “I was frustrated at the audacity of people from outside of our community using these legal mechanisms to bully people from our local community out of utilizing symbols and words that are important to our culture.”

The resolution calls upon certain state agencies and Native Hawaiian organizations to form a task force to come up with a system to “recognize and protect” Native Hawaiian cultural, intellectual property and traditional artistic expressions. It also seeks protections for taro, a traditional crop that story says is an ancient ancestor to the Hawaiian people and that scientists have tried to modify in the past genetically.

The task force must submit its recommendations and any proposed legislation to lawmakers in the next three years. The House and Senate committees have passed this resolution. The full Senate is scheduled to vote on it Monday (April 22, 2019). The Aloha Poke incident emulates past events, like when a non-Hawaiian photographer claimed the rights over an image of a woman dancing the hula and Disney copyrighted a modified version of a Hawaiian chant used in a movie. The restaurant, Chicago’s Aloha Poke Co., chose as its battleground the word “aloha,” meaning love, compassion, kindness as well as hello and goodbye. “It’s traumatic when things like this happen to us – when people try to take, modify or steal what’s been in our people’s world view for generations,” said Healani Sonoda-Pale, chairwoman of the Ka Lahui Hawaii political action committee. Healani Sonoda-Palewho helped in testifying support of the resolution.