Theorizing “the hoʻi mai” in This is Paradise

Jun 2, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm

[Colloquium Series]

Many Nations Longhouse

Native Pacific Cultural Studies scholars have theorized the concept of roots and routes to frame Pacific indigeneity and diaspora. In this paper, I contemplate what some Kānaka Maoli have termed, “the hoʻi mai”, that is, the return home to Hawaiʻi. Kānaka Maoli living in the diaspora are consistently told that in order to be authentically Kanaka Maoli and to have a voice in the larger struggle for Hawaiian sovereignty, they need to “come home”. According to many Hawaiian nationalists, “coming home” is the only way to combat settler colonialism in Hawaiʻi. Such pressures and foreclosures function to inhibit expressions of Hawaiian indigeneity and worse, keep Kānaka Maoli simultaneously landlocked and lost at sea. Bringing together debates around settler-colonialism in Native Studies and Queer of Color critiques of diaspora and belonging, I focus on the quotidian in Kristiana Kahakauwila’s story, “The Old Paniolo Way” in her book, This is Paradise (2013). By analyzing how the characters in This is Paradise perform conflicting narratives of being “bound in place” and desiring a “rudder” to steer a vessel at sea, I theorize a Moana-specific articulation of Kanaka Maoli indigeneity and queerness. In addition, I examine the cultural imperatives faced by Kānaka Maoli to reimagine “the hoʻi mai” and to expand how Kānaka Maoli maintain connections across the Moana nui and on the ʻāina.

Lani Teves (Kanaka Maoli) is an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Oregon. She is co-editor of the forthcoming anthology, Native Studies Keywords (University of Arizona Press, Spring 2015) and is currently working on a manuscript that explores how contemporary Kānaka Maoli performers negotiate their relationship to aloha and Hawaiian self-determination.