Hawaii classic or dud

I like that they specified that it was Ni'ihau Hawaiian, probably to account for the dialectical differences compared to Hawaiian that is institutionally taught throughout the rest of the state. I appreciate that the website quotes Kamakau and emphasizes the importance of Hawaiian history as told by Hawaiians. Kumu Hina is doing some very important work as far as Hawaiian history, culture, and identity. I never learned māhū as a bad word, and I didn't realize that it had those connotations to people until I was in high school, when I saw people take offense.

Also that Trask video (among others) were very popular in my HS/College days. The argument for/against the use of the word "haole" has always been interesting to me, similiarly to above, because I never understood what was wrong with it. Growing up, I didn't initially learn it as a pejorative. It was always just a descriptor, akin to "kanaka" unless another adjective was added to it.

I always find it interesting to find out the perspectives of Hawaiian history/culture from those who are not from Hawai'i. History of the Hawaiian monarchy is compulsory here, in elementary, intermediate, AND high school, though it might have been more emphasized in my high school than others.

4-year UH programs (and maybe community colleges?) also require a Hawaiian studies course in all programs, which I very much appreciated. I moved here as a middle-school kid, and I had some courses thru high school, but I wish I would've had more.

My partner Jasmine was recently expressing the outrageousness of the fact that ʻōlelo is not offered as a foreign language option in public schools. And she's absolutely correct. It's an official language of the state FFS!

HKT's breakdown is unassailable. I'm forgetting whether she mentions it in that video, but I think part of it is that white is the default race on the continent, and the use of the Hawaiian name instead of wypipo is a frequent reminder they're not the default here. That they are settlers makes it a little more awkward, especially given the fact that the overthrow of the Haw'n government was illegal and they're all occupying stolen land.

It is very revealing to talk to transplants about those politics. Military families are notorious for backward views about US sovereignty over Hawaii. Plenty of civilians I've met never get over the culture shock, and leave after a year or two. And plenty do lots of reading and get a well-rounded understanding of local history and politics. (There's a TON of great Hawaiiana literature available, and it makes me proud when I think about how many good writers have struggled to stay here and contribute to that body of work.)

South Park's Hawaii episode nailed a common settler haole type pretty well, ya? The deeper psychology is kind of hard to explain... There's a clinging-on to notions of paradise and, and I think that settlers who believe they truly belong here necessarily must disavow (or just remain ignorant of) the darker parts of this place's history and their problematic part in it. They latch on to an outrigger paddling team or (cooler IMO) hālau hula, and overidentify with these "tribes" in search of authentic belonging. Or they don't, and function shittily as permanent tourists who drink chi-chis day and night until they eventually croak.

Classic: Polynesian acceptance of a liminal gender (māhū), aikāne relationships that "held no stigmatism to the persons ʻano (one's nature or character)"

Dud: Christian missionaries began arriving in Hawaii in the 19th century, soon enacted strict sodomy laws

I can't remember if it was required that I take a Hawaiian studies course at UHH or if I just happened to take one. Theatre & Psychology did not require it, but I did want to take the Hawaiian Kingdom class for History.

Is Hawaiian language not offered at schools near you, davey? The school I work at, as well as most (if not all) of the high schools on my island offer it as one of the languages students can take, either through the school itself, or through a partnership with the Univeristy of Hawai'i system (mostly for the smaller schools, I believe). My HS required 2 years of Hawaiian. At elementary & intermediate levels, a lot of it is integrated as part of core subjects. Hell, there were many words that I didn't realize were Hawaiian or pidgin growing up because that was all I ever learned from home/at school. I'm lucky in that sense that my use of pidgin was never frowned upon, until I went to HS.

I definitely think you're right when it comes to how people who move here, especially those who are non-native/Asian/Pacific Islander, can feel very much like the "other" in a way that I do when I go to the mainland (I will admit here that it is something that really shakes me, and every time I go to the mainland, I take my Hawaiian flag with me as sort of a security blanket of sorts). I have been lucky in that the people I have come to know through that have been more understanding of the intricacies of being part of the community here. They all learned quickly that living here does not make you Hawaiian, nor does it allow you to claim those sorts of ties or rights to the land as perhaps someone would otherwise. I imagine that living in a bigger city or more "tourist" heavy area (Waikiki, Kona, Lahaina, etc.) probably makes it easier to distance yourself from the history of the respective place. I am grateful to the Hawaiian Renaissance for encouraging more people to engage in scholarship about Hawaiian culture and to pass down the history & practices. Every so often, my grandpa will recall the days when he was growing up in Hōnaunau, when the mindset was more about adapting to the Western ways and assimilation. I'm thankful that is no longer the case, and even more thankful that he is still with me to tell me about those experiences. He has definitely helped me realize how lucky I am to live in Hawai'i now, as a Hawaiian, with so many more resources available to me to learn from.

The volcanic eruption in 2018 saw a sort of mini-exodus of people who were kind of of that "permanent tourist" mindset from BI. Many of them decided to build in Leilani Estates, and couldn't get insured, because the area is still considered to be too high-risk and too close to Kīlauea. I did feel bad for many, because they lost almost everything, and could not get any sort of compensation. Many had to move back to their families on the mainland.

I think we're lucky here on BI in that we don't encounter too many people that try to claim this culture as their own (at least, I haven't encountered many), though there are a decent amount of people that will give themselves Hawaiian names upon living here for a few years. I don't know how much I can judge that, though, considering I was never given the traditional Hawaiian middle name, and as such, have only identified my Hawaiian family name when it's come up.

Our friends (O'ahu only mind you) are:

2 Hawaiians (relocated from Maui country for work)
5 yonsei (originally from Japan/Okinawa)
1 japanese immigrant married to 1 of the above
2 ethnic chinese
2 ethnic filipino
then a bunch of mixed folks

it's kind of sad that only 2 natives out of that pretty big crew but they are all super tight despite being stretched from Waipahu all the way around to Kaneohe.

My (terribly) education of Hawaiian culture was NOT visiting my grandparents who lived in Kauai for most of the 80s, but probably these 3 films:

+ North Shore (1987) which introduced the Hui/locals-only culture/respect, drop-in etiquette... and not much else predictably. Problematic.
+ Picture Bride (1994) which detailed the colonial/expansion of cane plantation-era Hawaii, the mass-migration of global culture (portuguese, british, japanese, chinese, filipino, et al) to the islands, the pidgin that was produced by that mix of cultures, the loneliness of farmers looking for love from their home countries, the women who were shipped abroad to meet those men... it's not a great film but it's much, much better than North Shore. Also I think it's Mifune's last role iirc.
+ The Ride (2003) this is maybe as bad as North Shore but definitely less problematic. I should mention I'd been traveling to Hawaii for a while by the time I'd seen this and it's a (don't laugh) time travel surf film but it has a good message and is much more sensitive to native causes and beliefs.

But when davey wrote this:

They latch on to an outrigger paddling team or (cooler IMO) hālau hula, and overidentify with these "tribes" in search of authentic belonging.

it stung because I would probably be the equivalent of tourist-enthusiasts of Bla Pahunini, Led Kaapana (and maybe even Ma'oli haha).

All that said, I'm an obvious outsider but davey's posting of Kapaemahu showed me something incredibly deep smack dab in the middle of tourist ground-zero. And hourspass' posts are incredibly educational. Thank you both for posting.

Hey Al, actually I think that remark was a bit snide. I wrote that rashly and I'd like to apologize and walk it back because it is not quite correct.

It's so important for people to engage with Hawaiian culture and help perpetuate it—perhaps especially so for transplants, who have less of a rightful claim to be here. Music and hula are great for that. Paddling is cool, too. It's rooted in Polynesia and it brings tons of people of all ethnicities together in the teams formed and at the regattas.

Building a deep connection with a culture other than your own is a very good thing. I don't want to dis it, and I didn't mean to suggest that people who weren't born here can't have a life here that's pono. And it's definitely possible to build a kind of local identity, even as a haole (or whatever non-Hawaiian ethnicity) transplant.

Expatriating (we consider Hawaii like a foreign country, ya?) changes you in profound ways. I think the right to identify with an adopted culture scales with the individual's efforts to learn about it, integrate with it, study its languages and/or participate in its practices. And shit, I'd be lying if I said my record's great in that regard! That's part of why I don't think I'll ever consider myself a true "local." Also, I think it's kind of like Texas, where if you weren't born there, people don't consider you a 100% Real Texan®.

If overidentification really is a thing, then probably it's much narrower than how I described it above. It's more like when people who just moved here and started learning how to surf call themselves local, which is pretty common.

Racial politics in Hawaii are very complicated. Everyone here who's not of native descent—even people with many generations of family on the island—are settlers. Native bloodlines have thinned out severely through extensive race mixing over the generations, which raises the question of who is really native Hawaiian. Many of my multiracial friends who have just a little Hawaiian ancestry at some point in their lives begin to identify as Hawaiian. I used to be cynical about that, maybe because it's a privilege to have that choice, but I came reject any ideas about needing certain blood quanta to qualify as "Hawaiian." The native culture was decimated by colonialists and missionaries, and it's encouraging to see people strive to salvage it, regardless of their genetic makeup. There's been a big movement over the last couple years to revive Hawaiian practices and languages. It's been wonderful to witness.

XP to hourspass:

Jasmine was telling me that few, if any, of O‘ahu public schools offer Hawaiian language courses. I wonder how true that is. It definitely wasn't an option for her at McKinley HS.

Incidentally, there's currently a big controversy over changing that school's name back to its original name, Honolulu High School. On campus there's a huge statue of McKinley holding the annexation "treaty," which is galling because the annexation was not legitimate under the law. Jasmine's been campaigning for the statue's removal for quite a while. The teacher's union and more woke ppl support the change, but many alumni and public figures are making specious arguments and clinging to the current name. The bill to change it was just deferred, I hope it eventually passes.

I get similar culture shock when I visit the lower 48. Now that I've lived here for most of my life, it feels weird to go places on the continent that are predominantly white, even though I'm haole as shit! I like white people just fine, I'm used to the diversity on display here at home. I don't get this feeling when I visit Europe, heh, maybe because I'm obviously a foreigner there.

Being a numerical minority has been humbling and without a doubt has made me a better person. Building friendships with people from numerous ethnic backgrounds I'd never have encountered if I had stayed anywhere else in the US has greatly enriched my life.

To Jersey Al: I'm glad that anything I said was informative; I've lived in Hawai'i for my entire life, and I consider myself very lucky to have done so. On the flip side, there were many things that I didn't understand or didn't realize still existed until HS (which was mid 2000s for me, graduated in 2007). The effects of plantation era are still pretty evident, not only through the generations that came after, but just by the structures still standing! There aren't as many places left, but it is very cool to get see parts of history more or less the same way my dad did, and his dad before him.

To add to what davey said, there is nothing wrong with trying to connect to a different culture, and I appreciate anyone who has a desire to learn about the history! However, there are some people who get a little too carried away, and decide to give themselves "Hawaiian" names, to seem more local, or try to obscure the fact that they were originally from somewhere else. These are some people I have a hard time getting along with, because they tend to gatekeep more, which I can only assume is a defense mechanism to help them feel more legitimate. I'm really not sure on that, though.

I'm always hesitant to talk too much about ethnic identity in regards to Hawai'i, because "local" really just means that you are from here, but to some, carries an implication of being able to identify as Hawaiian. A little bit more about my background, which maybe explains why I am so late to the party, so to speak: I've obliquely referred to my high school experience to try not to name drop, but I went to KS. I think this colored my identity in the sense that, throughout high school, since everyone was Hawaiian, everyone sought to identify as another culture as well, from another part of their ethnic background: Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, German, Irish, Korean, Filipino, Tongan, Samoan, etc. That kind of came with growing up in Hawai'i; having that multicultural perspective was normal, especially because it was VERY rare to find someone who was "pure" Hawaiian! However, there was a weird sort of...competitiveness that got tied into it as well.
I bring this up, because of the concept of "blood quantum" that I saw mentioned as well. I'm only 1/8th Hawaiian, and while I was growing up, my mom was always concerned about if I would have "enough Hawaiian" to qualify for things; admission to KS and their programs, ability to apply for Hawaiian Homelands, etc. Many programs (though not all) have since done away with those sorts of requirements, as long as the genealogy can be traced back to the last full-blooded Hawaiian ancestor. Though this also could have since changed, since it has been quite a while since I was required to provide documentation (having proof of going to KS kind of makes other organizations sort of hand wave you through, since if you can prove it to Bishop Estates, you're good).

That sense of having to "prove" yourself, as a Hawaiian, is something that I know a lot of people in my generation struggle with, myself included. I still do it, sometimes, when I feel like my "local" identity is in question. It's something I slip into when I'm on the mainland, and I feel too far away or disconnected. The pidgin comes out STRONG when I get drunk, and only recently did I realize that honestly, pidgin was my first language, more than standard English.
As I've gotten older, I've become more vocal about my ethnic background, and less concerned about "how much" of each ethnicity I am (to be clear, I'm 1/8 Hawaiian/Korean, 1/4 Portuguese, 1/2 Japanese-ish; we're not sure if it is just Japanese, or if there's some Okinawan somewhere in there also). I never had any real problems identifying and connecting with each background, and I am truly lucky to have been raised with that cultural pride. However, it's so funny how on the mainland, it's such a weird concept for other people. I've had people think I'm lying. I've had people not believe that someone could be ethnically Hawaiian. I've heard people claim that they are Hawaiian because they lived there for a few years. It's something I try to talk people through more now than I did before, rather than my initial reactions of defensiveness.

davey: Things are very different from when I was younger; by the time I was in high school, at least the bigger high schools on my island offered Hawaiian as a foreign language. The transition for O'ahu is probably more rough, considering the much more massive population, as well as the population skew, and educational programming; UH-Hilo's Hawaiian language/studies program has more of an ability to do that outreach, since there are far fewer schools here than over there. I'm not too familiar, but most of my friends who grew up on O'ahu, either went to KS, St. Louis (I know, I know; I promise that I was a public school kid throughout elementary and intermediate!), or Campbell.

I'm not surprised that they deferred the bill, unfortunately; I think there's a weird trend of preserving "history" at the expense of culture. Plus, there is probably a much more considerable split as far as views on annexation over on O'ahu than there is on my island. Not sure how much that may or may not contribute. Just a theory.

Anyway, sorry for the extremely long post; I have very complicated feelings on Hawai'i, which are sometimes hard to articulate since I've never lived anywhere else.

Excellent extremely long post/ Ethnicity and racial politics in Hawaiʻi is dissertation-length subject, there's so much to unpack.

What a clip

The US banned Hawaiian language, poisos our water, devastated our universal healthcare, overthrew our country, & illegally occupies Hawaii to this day. My mother's hands were broken for speaking Hawaiian in school. The US is not a beacon, but the destroyer of independence. #July4 pic.twitter.com/Qh2Gomfncb

— Silver Spook (@SilverSpookGuy) July 4, 2022

Goddamn that video that davey posted still hitting hard, esp. in light of Palestine/Gaza events.

Nephew is graduating UHM next month so need to pop over for a quick trip. Any cultural under-the-radar events happening 12/13-19?

Also I never replied to hourspass' amazing post... but respect. Mahalos for that.

OH! Yerac still in town or...?