HWST 478: Mele Au Hou

Here for the first time is a large collection of Hawaiian songs in an authoritative text with translation (music not included). The texts have never before been written consistently with the glottal stops (indicating syllabic breaks between vowels) and macrons (indicating long vowels and stresses) that make the words pronounceable by those unfamiliar with the Hawaiian language. Many of the songs have not been translated before or have only been freely adapted rather than translated. These 101 songs are all post-missionary and owe their musical origin to missionary hymns, although only a few are religious. None are technically chants, though some are chants that have been edited and set to music. They date from the mid-1850s (most are from the time of the monarchy) to 1968 (the date of Mary Kawena Pukui's translation of Christmas songs). Nearly all of these songs are sung today and are well known to Hawaiian singers. Included are love songs, and Christmas songs. There is an exhaustive introduction, which includes classification and arrangement of the songs; a note on the composers; and analysis of the structure, symbolism, and meanings of the songs; and a note on the translations and on the poetic vocabulary of the Hawaiian words. Available online for UHM patrons and publicly through Ulukau Digital Library.

Stillman reports on how certain themes in poetic expression came into prominence during the mid-to-late 1800s in the representation of the hula. The progression of themes, when brought together, offer a distinctly Hawaiian conceptualization of social history since the late nineteenth century that contrasts with published accounts of an experience of assimilation. Available online for UHM patrons via Taylor & Francis Online.

Available online for UHM patrons.

The Journal of Pacific History, 2004-12, Vol.39 (3), p.375-377. In 1812, at a period called Kani'aukani by Hawaiians, Kamehameha returned to Hawaii after his year on O'ahu. There he met a prophet named Kapihe, who recited for the king his already famous prophecy. Available online for UHM patrons.

Reclaiming Kalākaua: Nineteenth-Century Perspectives on a Hawaiian Sovereign examines the American, international, and Hawaiian representations of David La'amea Kamananakapu Mahinulani Nalaiaehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua in English- and Hawaiian-language newspapers, books, travelogues, and other materials published during his reign as Hawai'i's mō'ī (sovereign) from 1874 to 1891. Beginning with an overview of Kalākaua's literary genealogy of misrepresentation, Tiffany Lani Ing surveys the negative, even slanderous, portraits of him that have been inherited from his enemies, who first sought to curtail his authority as mō'ī through such acts as the 1887 Bayonet Constitution and who later tried to justify their parts in overthrowing the Hawaiian kingdom in 1893 and annexing it to the United States in 1898. A close study of contemporary international and American newspaper accounts and other narratives about Kalākaua, many highly favorable, results in a more nuanced and wide-ranging characterization of the mō'ī as a public figure. Most importantly, virtually none of the existing nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-first-century texts about Kalākaua consults contemporary Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) sentiment for him. Offering examples drawn from hundreds of nineteenth-century Hawaiian-language newspaper articles, mele (songs), and mo'olelo (histories, stories) about the mō'ī, Reclaiming Kalākaua restores balance to our understanding of how he was viewed at the time--by his own people and the world. This important work shows that for those who did not have reasons for injuring or trivializing Kalākaua's reputation as mō'ī, he often appeared to be the antithesis of our inherited understanding. The mō'ī struck many, and above all his own people, as an intelligent, eloquent, compassionate, and effective Hawaiian leader. Available online for UHM patrons.

Available online for UHM patrons.

"Since its publication in 1993 From a Native Daughter, a provocative, well-reasoned attack against the rampant abuse of Native Hawaiian rights, institutional racism, and gender discrimination, has generated heated debates in Hawai'i and throughout the world. This revised work includes new material that builds on issues and concerns raised in the first edition: Native Hawaiian student organizing at the University of Hawai'i; the master plan of the Native Hawaiian self-governing organization Ka Lahui Hawai'i and its platform on the four political arenas of sovereignty; the 1989 Hawai'i declaration of the Hawai'i ecumenical coalition on tourism; a typology on racism and imperialism. Brief introductions to each of the previously published essays brings them up to date and situates them in the current Native Hawaiian rights discussion." Available online for UHM patrons.

Available online for UHM patrons.

The musical genre of Hawaiian reggae is typically considered a combination of reggae and Hawaiian music, and has been popular in Hawai‘i since the 1980s. Also known as Jawaiian or island music, this genre involves the ever-shifting identity and cultural categories of localness and Hawaiianness. Localness in Hawaiian reggae involves rootedness in and affective connection to place, multicultural inclusion and equalization, and opposition to an “outside” or the global. Musicians and listeners of Hawaiian reggae will reference these characteristics in the music directly or when speaking about it. Localness in Hawaiian reggae also involves the cooption of Hawaiianness. Localness as a general category becomes legitimately connected to Hawaiian land through coopting Hawaiian indigeneity. In Hawaiian reggae, cooption occurs when musicians incorporate elements that sound Hawaiian in order to make the music sound more local. Listeners of the music also recognize sounding Hawaiian as serving this function. Although cooption and other settler colonial processes that legitimize localness make it highly problematic, it is the reality of many people. For this reason, I suggest that localness expresses a different connection to the land than that of indigenous Hawaiians. It is at once legitimate and highly problematic. Available online for UHM patrons.

Discourse (Berkeley, Calif.), 2001-01, Vol.23 (1), p.82-98. Available online for UHM patrons.