Displacing Natives: The Rhetorical Production of Hawai'i

(Paperback)

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This insightful study examines the strategies used by outsiders to usurp Hawaiian lands and undermine indigenous Hawaiian culture. Drawing upon historical and contemporary examples, Houston Wood investigates the journals of Captain Cook, Hollywood films, commercialized hula, Waikiki development schemes, and the appropriation of Pele and Kilauea by haoles to explore how these diverse productions all displace Native culture. Yet, the author emphasizes the voices that have never been completely silenced and can be heard asserting themselves today through songs, chants, literature, the internet, and the Native nationalist sovereignty movement. This impassioned argument about the linkages between textual and physical displacements of Native Hawaiians will engage all readers interested in Pacific literature and postcolonial studies.

Reviews

Wood's book offers very strong critical analyses of dominant cultural productions and discursive struggles, with a central focus on the contested terrain of representation. Displacing Natives is an excellent choice for courses that focus on on US colonialism, Hawaiian Studies, literary and visual representations of indigenous peoples, and ethnic studies. In this time of 'ena makani (stormy winds) it is important to see a scholarly work that explains the enduring process by which Hawaiian indigeneity is continuously effaced in and through the dominant popular culture. * The Contemporary Pacific *
Wood's original and insightful work on Hawaii is sure to engage a wide variety of readers, from those interested in Pacific literature and postcolonial studies to haoles who have decided to make this unique place their home. * Review of Communication *
This book is an account of the historical formation of Hawai'i that directly challenges the ever onward and upward unfolding of history embedded in the principal texts on Hawaiian history that have long been and remain the dominant interpretations. Wood traces the history of and acutely analyzes diverse practices that dispossessed and displaced native culture. * The Hawaiian Journal Of History *

Author Bio

Houston Wood spent many years as a macadamia nut farmer on the island of Hawaii. He is the coauthor of The Reality of Ethnomethodology and now teaches English at Hawaii Pacific University.