The Power of the Steel-tipped Pen: Reconstructing Native Hawaiian Intellectual History - Softcover

Silva, Noenoe K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0822363682 ISBN 13: 9780822363682

Verlag: Duke University Press, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

In The Power of the Steel-tipped Pen Noenoe K. Silva reconstructs the indigenous intellectual history of a culture where-using Western standards-none is presumed to exist. Silva examines the work of two lesser-known Hawaiian writers-Joseph Ho'ona'auao Kanepu'u (1824-ca. 1885) and Joseph Moku' hai Poepoe (1852-1913)-to show how the rich intellectual history preserved in Hawaiian-language newspapers is key to understanding Native Hawaiian epistemology and ontology. In their newspaper articles, geographical surveys, biographies, historical narratives, translations, literatures, political and economic analyses, and poetic works, Kanepu'u and Poepoe created a record of Hawaiian cultural history and thought in order to transmit ancestral knowledge to future generations. Celebrating indigenous intellectual agency in the midst of US imperialism, The Power of the Steel-tipped Pen is a call for the further restoration of native Hawaiian intellectual history to help ground contemporary Hawaiian thought, culture, and governance.

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Noenoe K. Silva

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The Power of the Steel-Tipped Pen

Reconstructing Native Hawaiian Intellectual History

By Noenoe K. Silva

Duke University Press

Copyright © 2017 Duke University Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-8223-6368-2

Contents

Foreword by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, 
Acknowledgments, 
"Ke Au Hawai'i" by Larry Kauanoe Kimura, 
Introduction, 
PART I JOSEPH HO'ONA'AUAO KANEPU'U, 
1 Joseph Ho'ona'auao Kanepu'u, 
2 Selected Literary Works of Joseph Kanepu'u, 
3 Kanaka Geography and Aloha 'Aina, 
PART II JOSEPH MOKU'OHAI POEPOE, 
4 Joseph Moku'ohai Poepoe, 
5 Singing (to) the 'Aina, 
6 Mo'olelo Hawai'i Kahiko, 
Conclusion, 
Appendix A: Kanepu'u Selected Bibliography, 
Appendix B: Poepoe Selected Bibliography, 
Notes, 
Glossary, 
Bibliography, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Joseph Ho'ona'auao Kanepu'u

He mea maikai ma ka hoiliili ana i ka Hae Hawaii, mai ka helu 1 a hiki i ka pau ana o na pepa 52, a e lawe aku ma ka Hale paipalapala ma Kawaiahao ia Samuela Russell nana e hana a paa. ... Makehewa ka poe lawe a hoolei, a haehae, a kiola, ua like ia me ka mea lalau i kana dala iloko o ka pakeke, a hoolei kuleana ole, me he pupule la.

Ina i paa i ka humuia ka Hae Hawaii a me ka Elele Hawaii paha, a hiki i ka wa e hoihoi ai oe e heluhelu, e kamailio pu no oe me ko hoa aloha au i ike ole ai e noho ana ma kahi loihi aku mai ou aku la, me he mea la e no[ho] pu ana olua ia wa.

* * *

In gathering the copies of Ka Hae Hawaii, from the first issue, number one, to the end at fifty-two, it is good to take them to the printer Samuel Russell at Kawaiaha'o who will bind them ... People who take the paper and toss it, tear it up, and dispose of it are like people who grab the money in their pocket, and throw it with no reason, as if they were crazy.

If the copies of Ka Hae Hawaii and Ka Elele Hawaii are bound, when you return to read them, it will be as if you are conversing with a friend you haven't seen who lives far away from you, as if you were both in the same place at that time.

* * *

JOSEPH H. KANEPU'U, "E Malama i ka Nupepa"

Joseph Ho'ona'auao Kanepu'u was born around 1824 in Kalawao on the Kalaupapa Peninsula of Molokai. His father was Aberahama Ka'alihi, but no other names in his mo'oku'auhau are known. It is known, however, that sometime in Kanepu'u's childhood, his family moved to Halawa, Molokai. Kanepu'u first entered school at the age of twelve at the mission school at Kalua'aha, near Halawa. Several of his classmates went on to the Lahainaluna secondary school on Maui, but he was not among them. As an adult, he moved to O'ahu, where, as he describes it, he received a teacher's certification in December 1853 "mamuli o ka hoopii ana o na makua o Maunalua, e lilo au i kumukula malaila" (because the parents in Maunalua [O'ahu] petitioned that I become a schoolteacher there).

From the 1850s until the 1880s, Kanepu'u was a regular contributor to the Hawaiian-language newspapers and one of the most ferocious and consistent defenders of the papers and of Hawaiian language, culture, and indigenous knowledge. He was a complex personality who also defended Christianity and wrote that Hawai'i's people needed education and that some native practices were of "ke ano pouli" or a "dark" or "unenlightened" nature. He was active as a schoolteacher and occasional political commentator, and he was the mea kakau (writer) of Molokai versions of important mo'olelo and mele.

Kanepu'u chronicled the establishment of and struggle over the first Kanaka Maoli–controlled newspaper, Ka Hoku o ka Pakipika (1861–1863). He also criticized the editors of that paper for cutting short the mele in Kapihenui's "He Mooolelo no Hiiakaikapoliopele," as mentioned in the introduction. His dedication to the value of the mo'olelo of our ancestors and to the generations of Kanaka Hawai'i in the future is striking. It was as if Kanepu'u looked directly into the future, into the next century, anticipating my own and younger generations of Hawaiian scholars and our enduring interest in and need for both the literature produced by his generation and the orature from all the generations before him. This orientation to the world and to his writing is what I have come to call mo'oku'auhau consciousness. He was among the first generation to take the oral traditions and create literature from them. His care for future generations extended beyond writing; he also foresaw that print copies of nupepa needed to be preserved, or the carefully written and printed words could still disappear. In the same letter in which he advised his readers to have their copies bound, he wrote,

No ka mea, eia ia'u kekahi olelo paa, "o na nupepa a pau i pai ia ma ka olelo Hawaii, a i lawe ia e a'u mai loko mai o na aoao a pau, e hiki no ia'u ke humu Buke, a e hooili ia no, no na hooilina. Aole au e haalele i kela nupepa, keia nupepa olelo Hawaii, a hiki i ko'u la e make ai."

* * *

Because, I have taken this vow: "all the newspapers published in the Hawaiian language, which I have subscribed to from all sides [political and/or religious], I can take and bind into books, and they will be bequeathed to heirs. I will not quit any Hawaiian-language newspaper until the day I die."

It is because of Kanepu'u's and others' commitment to the newspapers and their preservation that we are able to recover thoughts and themes from the literature of our ancestors. We are, in a sense, just continuing the work that he envisioned so long ago. He made sure that the connection to his ancestors and descendants (heirs) was made on his part, and other scholars and I are attempting to ensure a connection between his generation and our descendants. In this way, this work is a genealogy, a mo'oku'auhau of writing and scholarship. It seems crucial that the generations of Hawaiians following my own know that they have a long intellectual tradition.

Mo'oku'auhau consciousness also means a connection to 'aina and implies both aloha 'aina and malama 'aina (see the introduction). Kanepu'u exemplifies mo'oku'auhau consciousness in this way as well, as he documents indigenous Hawaiian geography, uses indigenous Hawaiian time markers such as month and moon night names, and incorporates place names as well as natural forms in his metaphors.

Some of Kanepu'u's writings are significant and others are perhaps less so. In this chapter, I review some of his more significant writings with as much context as seems appropriate. His more significant writings can be grouped into the following categories: journalistic reporting; advice and opinions, including two long serialized essays, entitled "Ke Ano o ka Wa Ui o ke Kanaka a me na Mea a Pau e Hiki mai ana ia Ia mahope Ona" (The nature of young adulthood and all the things that will happen to a person afterward) and "Ka Hana Kupono e Ao aku ai na Makua i ka Lakou Poe Keiki" (The proper behavior that parents should teach their children); history, especially the history of the Hawaiian newspapers; geography; ka'ao (legends) and mele; and short essays on various topics, such as the decrease of numbers of Kanaka and the value of using the indigenous counting system.

In these letters, essays, and mo'olelo, Kanepu'u promoted the teaching of Hawaiian language, literature, and indigenous knowledge along with the imported curriculum of the schools. The project of schooling, at least in part, was meant to "civilize" natives by replacing indigenous knowledge with what the...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Duke University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0822363682
• ISBN 13: 9780822363682
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 286
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Mare Nostrum Group B.V.; gpsr@mare-nostrum.co.uk; ; Doelen 72; Breda; 4831 GR; Niederlande