Terrorism or native protest? The Hui 'O He'e Nalu and Hawaiian resistance to colonialism

Pacific Historical Review

Volumn 74, Issue 4, 2005, Pages 575-601

  Walker, Isaiah Helekunihi ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT HILO   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COLONIALISM; POLITICAL HISTORY; POPULAR PROTEST; TERRORISM;

HAWAII [(ISL) HAWAIIAN ISLANDS]; HAWAII [UNITED STATES]; HAWAIIAN ISLANDS; NORTH AMERICA; PACIFIC ISLANDS; PACIFIC OCEAN; UNITED STATES;

EID: 30944442619     PISSN: 00308684     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/phr.2005.74.4.575     Document Type: Article

References (78)

1. Ken Kobayashi, "Terrorists warn U.S. over escorts," Honolulu Advertiser, July 28, 1987, sec. A, p. 1.
2. Ken Kobayashi, "Rothman was feared, witness says," in ibid., sec. A, p. 4
3. Kobayashi, "Reign of Terror on North Shore told," in ibid., July 21, 1987, sec. A, p. 1.
4. Ben R. Finney, Surfing, the Sport of Hawaiian Kings (Boston, 1966), 23.
5. Although many top-ranking professional surfers in the IPS were local and Native Hawaiian, the majority of these competitors were haole from California and Australia. "Haole" is a Hawaiian term that denotes non-Native, foreign, or white. The term "surfing breaks" denotes specific surfing locations. Waves crest or break in specific areas in the ocean just off the shoreline, usually along a specific reef shelf. "Surfing beach" is not a useful term because there can be several surfing breaks along a short stretch of a North Shore beach. For example, Backdoor, Pipeline, Gums, and Ehukai are surfing breaks just off the shore of Ehukai Beach.
6. In 1972 only three contests were held on the North Shore annually; by 1977 there were twenty-four. See "North Shore Contest Debate Continues," Surfer Magazine, 19 (1978), 90.
7. Seth Moot Ah Quin, interview by author, videotape recording, conducted at Lā'ie, Hawai'i, July 13, 2002. This and subsequent interviews will be archived at the Brigham Young University - Hawai'i Archives.
8. On the North Shore, they were nicknamed the "Bronzed Assholes." See Fred Hemmings, The Soul of Surfing (New York, 1999), 113, and Bryan Amona, interview by author, videotape recording, conducted at Kailua, Hawaii, Aug. 29, 2004.
9. Wayne Rabbit Bartholomew and Tim Baker, Bustin' Down the Door (New York, 1996), 154
10. Ibid., 151.
11. Kealoha Kaio, Jr., interview by author, videotape recording, conducted at Lā'ie, Hawai'i, July 5, 2002. "Kanaka Maoli" is a Hawaiian term for indigenous Hawaiian people. With a long mark over the first "a," the term denotes Native Hawaiian people as a whole; without the long mark, the term means a Native Hawaiian person or persons.
12. Finney, Surfing, 23.
13. Davida Malo, Mo'oleleo Hawai'i: Hawaiian Antiquities (Honolulu, 1951), 223.
14. For more on Hawaiian surfing legends, see Mary Pukui, "Songs (mele) of Old Hawai'i,". Journal of American Folklore, 62 (1949), 255-256
15. Abraham Fornander, Selections from Fornander's Hawaiian Antiquities and Lore (Honolulu, 1959);
16. George Kanahele, Waikiki 100 BC to 1900 AD: An Untold Story (Honolulu, 1996); and Finney, Surfing.
17. Finney, Surfing, 40.
18. James Cook, A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, volume 3 (London, 1784), 146.
19. Although increased illness and missionary scorn for "idle and sensuous" practices diminished surfing's popularity in the mid-nineteenth century, he'e nalu never disappeared. Even busy Hawaiian royalty, like Hawaiian princes Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana'ole, David Pi'ikoi Kupio Kawananakoa, and Edward Kawananakoa made time to surf in the 1880s, even while away at school in California. By the early 1900s he'e nalu found renewed interest with expert Native Hawaiian surfers like Duke Kahanamoku and George Freeth, who revived the sport and introduced it to places like Southern California and Australia. This is why surfers revere Duke Kahanamoku as the father of modern-day surfing.
20. Chuck Waipā Andrus, interview by author, videotape recording, conducted at Hau'ula, Hawaii, June 25, 2004.
21. Tom Pohaku Stone, interview by author, videotape recording, conducted at Waimea Valley, Hawai'i, July 5, 2004.
22. Billy Ho'ola'e Blankenfeld, interview by author, videotape recording, conducted at Kane'ohe, Hawai'i, July 26, 2004.
23. Ibid.
24. Amona interview.
25. Ibid.
26. Ah Quin interview. "Bran" and "braddah" are Pidgin English terms that mean close friend, guy, or man; the usage is similar to "bro" or "dude."
27. Stone interview.
28. Ah Quin interview.
29. Blankenfeld interview. Although sponsors and the surfing industry on the North Shore profited greatly from these events, the IPS itself was initially established as a non-profit organization.
30. Amona interview.
31. Eddie Rothman, interview by author, videotape recording, conducted at Honolulu, Sept. 5, 2003.
32. Primo, interview by author, videotape recording, conducted at Honolulu, Sept. 5, 2003; Primo did not give his last name.
33. The North Shore communities of Lā'ie, Hau'ula, and Kahuku are made up primarily of Native Polynesian Mormons. Several Hui leaders were raised in the LDS church. A local bi-monthly North Shore newspaper described how Hui meetings opened with prayer and soda drinking.
34. See Ron Valenciana "'Black Shorts' Extortion on the High Seas?" North Shore News, July 26, 1987, p. 3.
35. Imbert Soren, conversation with author, conducted at Lā'ie, Hawai'i, May 1997. Since Soren felt uncomfortable being recorded on tape, the only record of this conversation is in handwritten notes taken as he spoke; in author's possession.
36. Kobayashi, "Reign of Terror," 1.
37. Kobayashi, "Threats forced him to hire 'terrorists,'" Honolulu Advertiser, July 31, 1987, p. A3.
38. Ibid. Although "boys" is common slang in Hawai'i, it is possible that Hemmings was using the word in a pejorative sense, like calling African American men boys. His other comments toward Hawaiian Hui members during the trial can also be interpreted as paternalistic. was using the word in a pejorative sense, like calling African American men boys. His other comments toward Hawaiian Hui members during the trial can also be interpreted as paternalistic.
39. Ibid. Neither of the two surfers was convicted in this trial. Although the surfers interviewed for this project admitted that some club members had a history of using drugs, most were strong advocates of drug-free living. For example, Bryan Amona and Billy Blankenfeld were both very active in a variety of anti-drug community projects. Other Hui members were involved in organizations, like the Mormon Church, that strongly discourage using drugs. interviewed for this project admitted that some club members had a history of using drugs, most were strong advocates of drug-free living. For example, Bryan Amona and Billy Blankenfeld were both very active in a variety of anti-drug community projects. Other Hui members were involved in organizations, like the Mormon Church, that strongly discourage using drugs.
40. Fred Hemmings, "Hemmings on surfer threats," Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Aug. 12, 1987, sec. A, p.15.
41. Bart Asato, "Getting a bad rap, black shorts insist," Honolulu Advertiser, Aug. 12, 1987, sec. A, p. 4.
42. Although North Shore made only $3.8 million in theaters, it was a popular film among surfers. Interest recently revived after it was released on DVD.
43. North Shore, directed by William Phelps, 96 min., Universal Studios, 1987, videocassette.
44. The Hui character unsuccessfully coaxes his friends to jump Kane as a group; he then throws dirt in Kane's eyes before punching him and then attacks him with a big stick.
45. Several post-colonial theorists have contended that hegemonic media commonly disparage colonial resistance with debasing stereotypes. Thus, when "Native Americans were called 'beasts' and 'savages' because White Europeans were expropriating their land; Mexicans were derided as 'banditos' and 'greasers' because Anglos were seizing Mexican territory," as Ella Shoat and Robert Stam have asserted, conquest is justified and Native resistance is deemed senseless. See Ella Shoat and Robert Stam, Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media (London, 1994), 18.
46. Stone interview.
47. Erwin Au, interview by author, videotape recording, conducted at Kahuku, Hawai'i, July 21, 2002.
48. Jane Desmond, Staging Tourism: Bodies on Display from Waikiki to Sea World (Chicago, 1999), 48.
49. Haunani-Kay Trask, From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai'i (Honolulu, 1992), 53.
50. For more history on the South Seas film genre, see Larry Langman, Return to Paradise: A Guide to South Sea Island Films (Lanham, Md., 1998), 286
51. for a deeper analysis of the colonial discourse generated in these films, see Huston Wood, Displacing Natives: The Rhetorical Production of Hawai'i (Lanham, Md., 1999), 103-121.
52. Stuart Hall, Representation: Cultural Representation and Signifying Practices (Milton Keynes, U.K., 1997), 234-235.
53. Wake of the Red Witch, directed by Edward Ludwig, 106 min., Republic Studios, 1948, videocassette.
54. Others also found this to be the case in colonial India. In Revathi Krishnaswamy, Effeminism: The Economy of Colonial Desire (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1998), the author has argued that British colonialism "was justified, naturalized, even legitimized through an ideological distinction between English manliness and Indian effeminacy."
55. Mrinalini Sinha also drew these conclusions in Mrinalini Sinha, Colonial Masculinity: The "Manly Englishman" and the "Effeminate Bengali" in the Late Nineteenth Century (New York, 1995).
56. Between 1912 and 1924 Duke Kahanamoku won a total of six Olympic metals in events like the 100-meter freestyle and 800-meter relay - three gold, two silver, and one bronze.
57. Greg Dening, Performances (Chicago, 1996), 34.
58. In protest, Queen Lili'uokalani surrendered to the U.S. government, not the provisional government.
59. For the Blount Report, see Executive Documents of the House of Representatives, 53 Cong., 3 sess. (1894-1895).
60. Kēhaulani Kauanui has explained that the joint resolution was for domestic policymaking only, and, according to U.S. law, a treaty was required for such an act. Thus, annexation was unconstitutional and illegal. See J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, "Precarious Positions: Native Hawaiians and US Federal Recognition," The Contemporary Pacific, 17 (2005), 3-4.
61. Stone interview.
62. Andrus interview.
63. Ibid.
64. Blankenfeld interview.
65. Ah Quin interview.
66. Amona interview.
67. Dening, Performances, 34.
68. See "'Occupation' of Kaho'olawe in the works?" Honolulu Advertiser, Jan. 4, 1976, sec. A, p. 1. They occupied the island in protests of U.S. Naval bombings there. Military bombing began shortly after Pearl Harbor was attacked and did not officially stop until 1990. Founded by Kanaka Maoli activists like George Helm, Dr. Noa Aluli, and Walter Ritte, Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana "occupied" the island in defiance of the U.S. Navy on five different occasions, battled the Navy in public hearings and courtrooms, and ultimately helped end bomb testing on Kaho'olawe.
69. See Jay Hartwell, "Ho'omana," in Paul Spickard, Joanne Rondilla, and Debbie Hippolite Wright, eds., Pacific Diaspora: Island Peoples in the United States and Across the Pacific (Honolulu, 2002).
70. Asato, "Getting a bad rap."
71. Bartholomew and Baker, Bustin' Down the Door, 154-155.
72. Stuart Homes Coleman, Eddie Would Go: The Story of Eddie Aikau, Hawaiian Hero (Honolulu, 2002), 10.
73. Jay Hartwell has pointed out that many in Hawai'i, especially the older generation, "dismissed the 'Ohana as crazy activists" in Hartwell, "Ho'omana," 325.
74. Amona interview.
75. Ty Kawika Tengan, "(En)gendering Colonialism: Masculinities in Hawai'i and Aotearoa," Cultural Values, 6 (2002), 251.
76. Chris Mauro, "In the Hot Seat with Kalā Alexander," surfermag. conz, Oct. 4, 2002.
77. Gananath Obeyesekere, "'British Cannibals,' Contemplation of an Event in the Death and Resurrection of james Cook, Explorer," Critical Inquiry, 18 (1992), 634.
78. Daryl Stant, interview by author, videotape recording, conducted at Honolulu, Sept. 2, 2003.