Settling the record straight
I write as a founding member of the UH Manoa Ethnic Studies Department to correct an inaccurate statement by English Professor Candace Fujikane (“Critical transformations,” 4/22).
Dr. Fujikane mistakenly attributed our department’s slogan, “Our History, Our Way” to local Asians who she called colonial with “no perception that Hawaiians have their own struggle.”
First of all, myself and other Kanaka ‘Oiwi (Pete Thompson, Kehau Lee, Terrilee Kekoolani, Soli Niheu) were at the forefront of the struggle and the formulation of our slogan.
Second, the slogan is inclusive of Kanaka ‘Oiwi history. Our ethnic studies courses on Hawaiians and land tenure were the first to challenge the dominant historical narrative, which characterized Native Hawaiians as compliant, childlike natives who embraced Christianity and American settler civilization.
We empowered our students with a history of resistance, from the makaainana of Kau who killed abusive chiefs; to the killing of Captain Cook; the taking of the Fair American; the rebellion of Chief Kekuaokalani and Chiefess Manono; the 1845 petitions against Ka Mahele; the Wilcox Rebellion; the Hui Aloha ‘Aina; the 1895 Restoration; and Hawaiian longshoremen who founded the I.L.W.U. Moreover, we got involved, with our students, in Kalama Valley, Waiahole-Waikane, Heʻeia Kea, Waimanalo, Niumalu Nawiliwili and Kahoolawe community struggles.
Sadly, Fujikane’s statement is yet another example of how labeling Asian immigrant workers and their descendants as colonial “settlers” is ahistorical, narrow-minded, lacking in class analysis, and too simplistic to explain our complicated islands’ society.
Dr. Davianna Pomaikai McGregor Professor, Ethnic Studies Department UHM
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