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Native Hawaiians 'reclaim' surfing with Moore's Olympic gold
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of ABC News
Posted: August 16th, 2021
https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/wireStory/native-hawaiians-...
Carissa Moore wore a white and yellow plumeria pinned next to her ear for her victory-lap interviews after making history as the first Olympic gold medalist at surfing’s historic debut. Her mother — crowned the Honolulu Lei Queen in 2016 — had given her the flower hair clip before she left for Tokyo to remind the only Native Hawaiian Olympic surfer of where she came from. At this pinnacle point, Moore is still in disbelief when she's compared to Duke Kahanamoku, the godfather of modern surfing who is memorialized in Hawaii with a cherished monument. Moore has now become a realization of Kahanamoku’s dream, at once the symbol of the sport’s very best and a validating force for an Indigenous community that still struggles with its complex history. “It’s a reclaiming of that sport for our native community,” said Khi Lewis, president of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, which convenes the largest annual gathering of Native Hawaiians. Lewis said all the locals he knew were texting each other during the competition, glued to the TV and elated, even relieved, by Moore's “surreal” win. He called it a “come to home moment" for a community that may never reconcile its dispossession. Hawaii was annexed by the United States in 1898. “At times, we’re an invisible people. Our sport is being defined by other groups. This puts it into perspective,” Lewis said. “It feels like an emerging of a people, of a native community that has been invisible to many."
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