An Ignorant Mainlander’s Primer on Hawaiian History
When I moved to Maui, I thought I knew Hawaii. After all, I had been going there with my family on vacation for years, growing up in California.
But it turns out that you see things differently when you’re an adult and not a child, when you live somewhere rather than just visit, when you’re in a house and not a hotel.
Nowhere in my life was that more apparent than in Hawaii. I learned so many things about those islands that I had never even thought to think about, both tragic and wonderful.
Looking back, my ignorance was startling.
In this post I’d like to share what I learned with you, so that if you ever go there, you’ll be less ignorant than I was. And if you don’t go, you can learn about Hawaii’s wisdom from afar.
But let’s be clear - I’m still an ignorant mainlander!
And I do not speak on behalf of Native Hawaiians or their culture in any way. I merely hope to share with other mainlanders what I did not have, that is certainly worth knowing.
This is meant to be a conversation starter, not a comprehensive guide. So with that caveat, let’s dive in.
The incredible story of Hawaii’s first settling
The Hawaiian Kingdom was Overthrown by Americans
America’s Insults and Injuries to Hawaii
Being the Outsider without a Passport
Polynesian Culture Lessons
More Fast Facts
So what?
The incredible story of Hawaii’s first settling
The Hawaiian islands were first settled by Austronesian people around 900 AD, by the final wave of Pacific Polynesian explorers coming from ancient Taiwan.
They had gotten to Tonga by 500 BC, stopped for centuries for reasons we still don’t know, and then finished the swing and settled out to Hawaii and Rapa Nui around 900 AD.
That’s the plot of the Disney Moana movie, and it’s based in fact! These people travelled thousands of miles in simple wooden craft, using only the stars and currents to navigate.
After Polynesian settling, the islands each existed as separate kingdoms until the arrival of European James Cook in 1750, who promptly got himself killed trying to kidnap a chief. (no, contrary to rumor they didn’t cook and eat him)
Then Westerners traded new weapons (and diseases) with the famous King Kamehameha of the Big Island, who used them to conquer the other islands by force and treaty into one Kingdom of Hawaii by 1795.
This Kingdom existed as a sovereign nation recognized around the world, and had a primarily sugar based economy with imported labor from all corners of the Pacific, in a melting pot of cultures. It also outlawed slavery 13 years before America got around to it.
The Hawaiian Kingdom was Overthrown by Americans
This is the number one thing mainlanders should know, and what I was shocked to learn so late in my life — that Hawaii was a sovereign nation illegally overthrown by US businessmen in 1893 and annexed in 1898.
This event still colors relations on the islands to this day, which is glaringly evident to anyone who ventures outside of the resorts.
In 1893, some American sugar barons (including Sanford Dole, cousin of James Dole the banana tycoon) tired of paying import taxes to the US and organized a coup explicitly against the orders of President Grover Cleveland, using nearby marines to ‘protect American interests’.
This was an escalation of recent agitation including an earlier Bayonet Constitution forcibly signed by the previous monarch that stripped natives of rights and gave them to whites.
Reigning queen Liliʻuokalani gave up the throne at gunpoint and the businessmen took over. Cleveland commissioned the Blount report which found the overthrow illegal and demanded the return of the islands, which was refused(!) Meanwhile Congress created a different Morgan report which exonerated everyone and muddied the waters.
So they remained in power until 1898, when the new president William McKinley agreed to annex the islands as a territory amidst the Spanish American War, which also gave the US Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Cuba.
During this time, land was redistributed to whites, the Hawaiian language was outlawed, forced Christianization continued, and all sorts of nasty colonial stuff went on.
Hawaii remained a territory until statehood in 1959. Around this time sugar gave way to tourism as the largest economic driver, though tourism is only a quarter of the modern economy — large but not a majority.
You also may not know about the 1993 apology resolution, which expressly recognized that the overthrow was illegal and apologized on behalf of America. But it didn’t change much legally.
In other words, Hawaii is a unique and tragic example of American colonialism, in that an entire sovereign nation was taken over and is now its own state, rather a state gradually taking over the territories of multiple tribes like most of the other 49.
America’s Insults and Injuries to Hawaii
America has much to answer for to the Polynesians, from Hawaii to the Marshall Islands (which are still in free association today)
During the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests starting in 1946, they forcibly removed the islanders, nuked their islands with 1000x the force of Hiroshima, and gave the land radiation poisoning, later paying out $125M in damages. :(
Four days after the first test, a French automotive engineer debuted the bikini swimwear to the world for the first time, and tastelessly named it after the atoll, hoping his swimsuit’s revealing style would create an “explosive commercial and cultural reaction” similar to the explosion.
Similarly, the US Navy bombed the Hawaiian island of Kahoʻolawe so often for target practice that they cracked its water table and rendered it uninhabitable until activists returned it to Hawaiian stewardship in the 80s.
Also, the reason why everything is more expensive there is not the remote location, but a protectionist WW1 shipping law called the Jones Act.
It mandates all ships going from US port to US port be owned and operated by Americans , which make goods in Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, and Puerto Rico 40% more expensive than the mainland on average.
Trump waived it temporarily after Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico — but nobody has repealed it given pressure from the shipping lobby — affecting millions of Americans every day!
Being the Outsider Without a Passport
As you can imagine, this history lends Hawaii a completely distinct culture than that of mainland America.
It’s shaped by centuries of immigration, and is the only state that is majority Asian American— today there are more Japanese Americans (aka Nisei) there than any other race, and Native Hawaiians are only 10% of population.
I’ve heard it said ‘Hawaii is the one place in America where white people don’t get a free pass.’
And it’s true —I could feel my own minority and outsider status here, even with tourists around. My Asian-American friends, meanwhile, were often mistaken for locals.
Perhaps its the dramatically different environment and weather, the unpronounceable town names, or the occasional looks on the street.
It’s an enlightening experience a white American can have without a passport, to feel what it’s like to be the Other in society.
Polynesian Culture Lessons
Polynesian culture has plenty to teach us as well. For one, the English words of ‘mana’, ‘taboo’, and ‘tattoo’ all come from Polynesian languages.
The indigenous culture had many social mores that suit someone tired of Western civilization, from work being illegal and surfing required, to the watershed based land management system of Ahupua’a.
Land ownership was communal, and chiefs were regarded as stewards, rather than masters, managing the land for the good of their grandchildren.
And then of course there is Aloha — which has been co opted as a tourist slogan, but is still very much a way of life that is practiced every day.
It doesn’t just translate to ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’ or ‘good spirit’ — it goes beyond that to a base goodness and generosity that can only have come from such a pleasant and lush land.
And the associated honi greeting (above)— pressing foreheads together to breathe in as one and share air — is quite an intimate experience.
That’s where the word ‘haole’ comes from — meaning ‘outsider’ but literally ‘without breath’ — as the white outsiders greeted each other with handshakes, and not by sharing breaths.
It can be an affectionate term or a derogatory one, by the way, depending on the tone and context.
More Fast Facts
- Hawaii is more pleasant than the Caribbean because while it is still tropical hot, it has tradewinds (so named to propel ships) from the northeast, for an always refreshing breeze.
- WEAR REEF SAFE SUNSCREEN! Only non spray sunscreen with titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are acceptable ingredients - anything else will hurt the reef. Don’t buy it, don’t go in the ocean with it!
- Five out of six Hawaiians live on Oahu. No wonder it feels crowded!
- The island of Lana’i is 98% owned by Oracle founder Larry Ellison, which sounds neocolonial. During the pandemic at least he ‘reduced or eliminated rent altogether for businesses on the island and paid the full wages and benefits for employees who worked for him.’
- Jaws on Maui has one of the biggest wave breaks on Earth every winter and Kai Lenny surfs it in totally crazy ways.
- For contemporary Polynesian culture on Youtube, check out Olivia Foa’i’s impressive modern ‘hula — but-not-hula’ dances, or Hawaiian Reggae playlists.
- ‘My Hawaii’ by The Green in particular, with its Hawaiian chants and lyrics about fighting conquerors, captures this particular sentiment perfectly.
- Brush up on the 1000 most common Hawaiian words or do some lessons on Duolingo and your understanding of the place will greatly increase! (though its not necessary to get around)
- That, or learn some pidgin, brah!
So what?
This is obviously just the tip of this body of knowledge. The Paulet Affair, the Bayonet Constitution, the Hawaiian Renaissance , Menehune — there’s so much more. These are merely the initial facts I didn’t know, that I think all Americans should know.
If you want to dig deeper, read some Haunani Kay Trask, explore the Hawaiian Sovereignty movement, or poke around the ‘Kingdom of Hawaii’ accounts on Instagram — but be warned — folks are angry!
For academic non-native written histories, Hawaii by James Michener is a good introduction to the distinct people who have settled the islands, if a bit dry and long. Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell is more punchy.
What you do with these facts is up to you. Some choose not to visit Hawaii at all, claiming it is immoral.
Others visit but don’t live, others rent but don’t buy, some seek native blessings before buying — the choices are as wide as the options..
As for me, I did my best to buy local, be respectful of locals (let them pass on roads, take the good surfing waves, etc), and give back to the culture via donations to the Kimokeo Foundation and campaigns like #StopRedHill, which aim to shut down a military plant leaking oil into Oahu drinking water.
The Movers and Shakas Pono Pledge is a good take on this, in my mind, though the Kingdom of Hawaii crowd would disagree.
How about you? What have you learned about Hawaii and the places you’ve lived, that we can all learn from?
I’m always eager to learn more.
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