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41 MMNHWG REPORT May 5th, • • Dress • of the NationalDay of and Murdered IndigelIOLIS Women,Girls,and Two-Spirit people • • • . SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS Native Hawaiian women and girls experience effort on the part of the federal or state govern- violence at rates disproportionate to their popula- ment to understand and prevent MMNHWG; and tion size. Because of a lack of accessible data and 3) the avenues by which Native Hawaiian women a systemic disregard for the safety and wellbeing and girls go missing or are murdered is complex of Native Hawaiian women and girls on the part and intertwined with persistent historical inequi- of government entities, the scope of the Missing ties that many people with legislative power fail and Murdered Native Hawaiian Women and Girls to recognize are continuing to affect the condi- (MMNHWG) crisis is incomplete. Statistics on tion of Native Hawaiians today. MMNHWG are highly limited. Therefore, the sta- tistics presented in this report must be interpret- For this report, the term "Native Hawaiian Women ed with the understanding that the true scope of and Girls Violence" or "NHWG violence," includes the problem of MMNHWG is much larger than the the underlying social, economic, cultural, insti- meager data available can demonstrate at this tutional, and historical causes that contribute time. to the ongoing violence and systernic erasure of Native Hawaiian women and girls. The lack of data on MMNHWG and on Native Hawaiian women and girls in general may leave "Missing"for this report is broadly defined as Na- many with the perception that MMNHWG is not tive Hawaiian girls (persons under the age of 18) an issue that warrants further exploration and/or who are deemed as "runaways" by law enforce- government resources. Such perceptions direct- ment, meaning they voluntarily or involuntarily ly fuel the continued erasure of Native Hawaiian fled from their parent/guardian and may or may women and girls. The crisis of MMNHWG is often not return. Missing also includes Native Hawaiian called "the invisible crisis" due to: 1) the lack of women and girls whose whereabouts are un- recognition that Native Hawaiians are the Indig- known, including women and girls who are miss- enous peoples of Hawaii and that they continue ing as a result of being trafficked and/or trapped to experience systemic racism; 2) no concerted in the military-prostitution complex.