Any reflection on how statehood affected Hawaiçi usually centers on chronicling the Islands’ move away from agriculture and defense as its anchors and toward tourism and development for jobs and economic sustenance.
But kamaçäina residents know the impacts of statehood, enacted 50 years ago, are much broader than that.

Statehood brought an expansion of the business sector, and cultural changes along with it. Mom-and-pop stores, long the commercial mainstays of Hawaiçi communities, vied for customers with Mainland retailers. The educational focus of the University of Hawaiçi, originally a land-grant college, broadened to prepare students for wider career options.
Popular culture shifted, too, as improvements in communications drew Islanders closer to Mainland trends. Slowly, aloha attire receded to a smaller space in Isle closets and teens increasingly began to favor fashion statements that could be spotted in other U.S. cities. Many adults remember barefoot days at school; the kids, not so much.
But admission to the Union hasn’t turned Hawaiçi into a cookie-cutter state. Many characteristics still set the Islands apart. Hawaiçi’s population makeup has changed but continues to represent a melting pot of cultures, with the newer arrivals — Micronesians, Southeast Asians — taking their place. Native speakers of a wide variety of languages live here, adding to the complex fabric.
Among the incongruities of this anniversary: It was only after statehood, many decades after the Hawaiian kingdom was overthrown, that the renaissance of Native Hawaiian culture and consciousness occurred. Political movements and a rebirth of interest in the language were primary features of this renewed awareness.
It is sensitivity to this development, and the heightened interest in sovereignty for indigenous people, that has given the statehood celebration a subdued tone. Not everyone wants to celebrate.
However, Hawaiçi did join the American experiment in democracy in 1959, and for most of its residents, there’s ample cause for a jubilee. The Aloha State is certainly capable of marking this seminal occasion and all the great joys and privileges of statehood while acknowledging the nuances of its diverse character. It’s appropriate that the whole story — from those who’ve objected and from those who rejoice — be told.
And it’s fitting that the focus be turned to what may be ahead. This year-long observance has provided an opportunity that Hawaiçi needs, to take an honest assessment of how far the state has come and the array of options for its future. That is the mission of the aptly named “New Horizons” statehood conference set for Friday (pre-registration continues until 5 p.m. tomorrow, at hawaii
statehoodconference.com/
register). Among the forward-looking themes: “21st Century Economy,” “Education for the Next Generation” and “Native Hawaiians: Cultural Navigation in a Sea of Change.”
Engaging in these discussions — or, for the vast majority of citizens at home, giving them some reflection — is certainly a fitting aspect of this anniversary. And keeping these issues alive in the public discourse will help guide Hawaiçi through its second half-century of statehood.