A Paradise Lost - KOPS - Universität Konstanz

The texts collected in ‘Oiwi deal with identity as fractured in history, ethnicity,
political activism, language choice, and the production of art. The initial editors’
discussion about the project’s goals reveals that identifying as Hawaiian entails kuleana,
which can mean responsibility as well as privilege. Any indigenous self-definition is
contested, both from within as from without: A Hawaiian-language teacher does not feel
Hawaiian enough because “I’m still talking English thoughts. […] I want to get beyond
that. […] I gotta stand in front of Hawaiians and tell Hawaiians how to use the
language,” 377 while a light-skinned university professor explains:
Even though I do speak the language, even though I have danced hula, even
though I teach Hawaiian studies, I still get called haole based on how I look. […]
I’m not pure Hawaiian, but I was born in these islands, I was raised in these
islands by my father’s family. My father’s Hawaiian. My haole mother gave up
her land and her culture and her status in her society to come here and be a haole
wife to a Hawaiian man and go into his family. […] But because I have been
privileged to have been raised here by my Hawaiian family, I feel a particular
obligation to my Hawaiian heritage. 378
These statements may serve to explain why the editors created the first exclusive and
regular venue for creative writing by Hawaiians. After more than three years, time and
funding allowed for a second issue of ‘Oiwi. The collection again assembled poetry,
essay, graphic artwork, chants, translations, and a list of biographical sketches of
“Notable Hawaiians of the 20 th Century.” 379 The impressive list of ali’i, activists, artists,
sports heroes, and generally people with a purpose in life was geared as is the whole
journal towards instilling pride in being Hawaiian. ‘Oiwi provides its native readers with
a collective genealogy, a rich cloak of identity. At the same time, to all others it
in 1921 by the U.S. Congress when it set aside 189,000 acres for the Hawaiian Home Lands. While the
Sugar Planters Association had proposed a 100 percent blood quantum, “Hawaii’s delegate to congress,
Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana’ole, argued that if there was to be a blood quantum at all, it should be set at
1/32” (ibid.). However, changing or abolishing the quantum, as has been proposed by OHA in the late
1980s, is not an as simple solution as it sounds: Kekuni Blaisdell, then acting director of UH’s Center for
Hawaiian Studies, noted that “the 50 percent Hawaiians have not received the benefits they are supposed to
have been receiving since 1921. They have the poorest health, the highest mortality rate, the lowest median
family income, and highest unemployment. Our official position at the Center for Hawaiian Studies is take
care of the neediest group first. Then if you want to change the blood quantum, sure” (329).
377 Dudoit et al. 1998: 7.
378 Ibid.
379 D. Mahealani Dudoit/Ku’ualoha Meyer Ho’omanawanui et al. (eds.), ‘Oiwi: A Native Hawaiian Journal
Vol. 2 (2002): 224-65.
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