Statement on Racial Justice

Black Lives Matter. The University of Hawaiʻi Hamilton Library stands with our black faculty, students, and all people of color across the US and Oceania. We condemn and call for an immediate end of police brutality and the dismantling of systems of oppression. We acknowledge our kuleana to one another, not only for personal care but for individual and collective action to make a difference in the world. These protests remind us of the long and very disturbing history of colonial and racial attitudes and violence against black, brown, Asian, and indigenous bodies. These American citizens and immigrants experience violence on a daily basis. We condemn federal and state actions that try to limit First Amendment rights for Black communities and communities of color while providing white supremacists an unrestricted platform.

We renew our commitment to diversity and inclusion in our work, our policies, our collections, and the way we work with our students and faculty. We welcome and support student and faculty groups that encourage dialogue among and between black, brown, Asian, Indigenous, and LGBTQ communities and the broader societies of Hawai‘i, Oceania, and the U.S.

Hamilton Library actively collects and exhibits materials that support diverse views and diverse communities. It actively collects Native Hawaiian materials in Hawaiian and English. The Library has world-class collections in the languages of East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and 460 indigenous Pacific languages. The Library is committed to enhanced description standards so that the languages of the Pacific region and thereby the people who speak them, are more adequately and accurately described.

We stand committed to continuing the difficult conversations and work needed to transform the current social order to a more just future for us all.