HONOLULU — Hawaii turns 50 years old as the 50th state Friday, but there will be no grand parades, no dazzling fireworks, no lavish displays of native culture.
Organizers of the observation won’t call it a party. It is simply a “commemoration,” one that is sensitive to a painful history of the Hawaiian monarchy’s overthrow and unresolved claims of Native Hawaiians.
The main event is a low-key day- long conference reflecting on Hawaii’s place in the world.
“Instead of state government having huge parties and fireworks, we’re having a convention,” said Manu Boyd of the Royal Hawaiian Center, a shopping and entertainment area in Waikiki.
“That shows the strength and spiritual power of the Hawaiian people, whose shattered world has not yet been addressed,” he said.
