With swooping, rhythmic motions, hundreds of men, women, teenagers and preschoolers pounded taro into roughly 1,000 pounds of poi Wednesday at the state Capitol as part of a protest that drew hundreds of residents hoping to have their voices heard on the opening day of the legislative session.

They dipped their fingers in water and sprinkled moisture on the poi — balling it up and spreading it with the pounder; scraping it up and slapping it down — while activists spoke of Hawaiian sovereignty, Hawaiian-immersion charter school independence and financial support, the prevalence and possible danger of genetically modified organisms, the need for government transparency, and a repeal of the highly contested Public Land and Development Corp.

Four-year-old Kea McIntosh, a preschooler at Punana Leo o Manoa, said his favorite part about the pounding taro was "smashing it."

"I’m doing poi," he said proudly. "I’m going to make it like poi."

Most of the protesters marched from the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus. They arrived thrusting anti-GMO signs above their heads, yelling "a‘ole GMO" in unison, and transitioned into loud, rhythmic Hawaiian chanting as they approached the Capitol steps and nearly filled the courtyard.

Other signs read "Don’t disrupt the bones, what if it was your own?," "When in doubt, don’t dig it out," and "Save our kids, save our food, no GMOs."

"This is Hawaii, our land, and we have to teach respect for it and love our land, so it kind of just opened my eyes to come and support the label GMO or no GMOs (movement)," said 18-year-old UH-Manoa student Roslyn Dayton as she pounded poi.

Jamaica Osorio, a 22-year-old New York University graduate student from Hawaii, recited a poem that she wrote in high school in 2008 titled "Kaulana na pua," or "Famous are the Flowers," about the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom. She said that for her, the protest meant acknowledging those events that occurred 120 years ago today.

"It’s pretty special that so many people have showed up today to either talk about GMO or (from) the charter schools to talk about independence, because today (Wednesday) and tomorrow are pretty much the most important days of Hawaiian history and the future of our people," Osorio said.

The protest also featured singing from Halau Lokahi Charter School students, songs written and performed by a GMO opponent and a hula performed by Hakipuu Learning Center students facing the Queen Liliuokalani statue.

Gary Hooser, a Kauai County councilman and former director of the state Office of Environmental Quality Control, spoke to the audience in support of a repeal of the PLDC, which he said "allows for the development of public lands anywhere in the state."

"Public lands: that means our beaches, our parks, our mountains," he told the crowd. "Are we going to let them do that?"

Hooser then led the group to chant "Repeal" and "Label," referring to GMO products. He said after his speech that he is hopeful the PLDC will be repealed this session.

Internationally known GMO protester Vandana Shiva of India called for the abolishment of GMO products. She traveled to Hawaii to speak about food justice at the protest and other events this week.

"The human work and the human mind has been made to look primitive, and the primitive mind of violence and war has been made to look as our future," Shiva told the crowd. "We do not accept it."

She said later, "Gardening is our future; not GMOs. Freedom is our future; not seed slavery."

Alicia Maluafiti, executive director of the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association, said she does not support GMO-labeling legislation because it would increase food costs by up to 40 percent. GMO opponents, she said, are "a group of people that have a religious and philosophical opposition to this technology."

"We’re farmers, so we’re really down here to support a lot of the agricultural priorities," she said. "Food security is everyone’s business, and we want to make sure that we have enough affordable food for the people here in Hawaii so we’re going to be down here supporting land issues, labor, water, irrigation, infrastructure … You want to address food, you need to address the needs of the farmers."