Community Safety Toolkit During Military Event & Beyond : Learning from O'ahu Water Protectors & Water Protector Legal Collective in Hawaï'i

Documentation
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  • O’ahu Water Protectors & Water Protector Legal Collective are spoted and pined here in our Map

The Water Protector Legal Collective is an Indigenous-led legal nonprofit that provides support and advocacy for Indigenous peoples and Original Nations, the Earth, and climate justice movements. Born out of the #NoDAPL movement, WPLC’s founding mission was to serve as the on-the-ground legal team for the Indigenous-led resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) at Standing Rock where we provided legal support for Water Protectors in over 800 criminal defense cases in North Dakota.

The Water Protector Legal Collective is now involved in Hawai‘i water issues, see also Navy Disaster Poisons Hawaii – The US Navy has poisoned the largest water supply in O‘ahu, Hawaii

“WPLC, IADL, and NLG file joint Amicus Brief Supporting the Hawaiian Kingdom’s Complaint against the US Requesting a Declaratory Judgment and Effective End of U.S. Occupation”

Every 2 years, the U.S. hosts the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC)–the world’s largest international maritime war games exercise. RIMPAC will take place in Hawai‘i again this summer (2024).

Military exercises, commemorative celebrations in areas surrounded by military bases, military garrison catchment areas, etc. are times and geographical areas in which violent acts of violence are committed. Water hacktivists can be confronted with these and even fall victim to them.

The Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) is the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise. RIMPAC is held every other year in Honolulu, “state” capital of the illegally occupied Kingdom of Hawai‘i. During RIMPAC, navies of nearly thirty countries jointly conduct at-sea live-fire testing, ship sinking, submarine warfare, and amphibious assault. They also engage in air force training, precision bombing, and urban warfare practice.

While the warfare exercises occur at sea, “free play” occurs on Oʻahu’s shores, with military personnel coming ashore for “rest and relaxation.” RIMPAC’s impact on Hawaiʻi’s women, girls, and māhū, as with anywhere the US military goes, is devastating. The military’s assault on the land and ocean is directly linked to its violence against the bodies of women, girls, and māhū.
The Hawaiʻi State Commission on the Status of Women has found a dramatic increase in prostitution and sex trafficking to meet the demand for sex from military personnel during RIMPAC exercises, and we know there is a direct connection between militarism, the sex trade, and missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and māhū.

In anticipation of this violence, this collective of Black, Indigenous/Native
Hawaiian, feminists of color gathered to create this resource guide for our
beloved community. We keep each other safe. A new world, free from
imperialism and all forms of patriarchal violence, is waiting to exhale; we
must continue to organize as a collective to set her free.

In 2024, O’ahu Water Protectors & Water Protector Legal Collective published “Community Safety Toolkit. During RIMPAC & BeyondDuring RIMPAC & Beyond Resources & Steps to Take if Someone is Being Exploited or Harmed”.
RIMPAC Community Safety Toolkit.pdf (783.2 KB)

In this Toolkik we can find:

  • Telephone hotline for :
    • Sexual Assault
    • Domestic Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, & Stalking
    • Sex Trafficking & Exploitation
    • A step-by-step guide in the event of the disappearance of a minor

Some hotlines are operated by state-run public services, while others are set up by local communities or NGOs.

There’s also a tool for reporting with a website: It’s a Penalty.

  • Plus a joint statement:
    • Locate and assist organizations that provide support to survivors of human trafficking and other forms of violence.
    • Continue to educate ourselves and our communities.

What we can learn from them

  • Water hacktickists face military power (and associated industries) and their allied armies
  • The people involved in the NGOs implementing this toolkit are experienced and legitimate.
  • This toolkit addresses the problems of 4 types of violence: sexual violence, domestic violence, human exploitation & trafficking and child abuse.
    • Water Hacktivists build and share a prevention and warning system
    • It’s laid out on 1 A4 page that can be displayed and confirmed.
    • All the procedures indicated require a connection to the telecommunications network (and consequently forms of literacy associated with the use of ICT and discussions with institutions).
  • Threats and violence are gender specific in their main parts, especially against Native Hawaiian women and girls
  • Water hacktivists group together organizations that are intentionally committed to the design of a common representation, i.e. one with shared responsibility.
    • There’s a Legal Team in support
  • There is a dimension to violence that stems from racial/ethnic discrimination.
  • The principle of the Tool-Kit, prevention and warning and dissemination, can be adapted and reproduced elsewhere and in other contexts of water hacitvisms.

Further Resources

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