Restaging Capt. Cook: Kanaka 艑iwi Women Making History in Territorial Hawaii

March 6, 12:00pm - 1:15pm
Mānoa Campus, Sakamaki Hall A201 & via zoom

In 1928, the Territory of Hawai驶i hosted the Cook Sesquicentennial which commemorated the anniversary of Captain Cook鈥檚 arrival. This celebration tried to legitimize white settler colonial rule by anointing Cook as a forefather who brought Hawai鈥榠 into so-called modernity. These types of histories were largely disseminated by white settlers through state-sponsored texts, commissions, and institutions. I argue that ali驶i wahine, who were mostly excluded from these apparatuses, intervened by performing Hawaiian histories within the limited spaces available to them. I explore how ali鈥榠 Emma Ahu鈥榚na Taylor and her cohort of women from 鈥楢hahui M膩makakaua restaged settler-state histories during the sesquicentennial reenactment of Cook鈥檚 arrival. As elite, gendered interpreters of Hawaiian history, they brought Hawaiian men and women on stage to showcase Hawaiian cultural practices and politics that disrupted the colonial script. By doing so, they reasserted a K膩naka 鈥樑宨wi sovereignty over the production of Hawaiian history. About the speaker: Noah Hanohano Dolim is a PhD student in U.S. History at the University of California Irvine. His research reveals how ali鈥榠 wahine built and maintained sovereignties outside of the nation-state across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Noah is from Kunia, O鈥榓hu and currently resides in Hilo, Hawai鈥榠. Please email yuma@hawaii.edu to request the zoom link.


Event Sponsor
History, Mānoa Campus

More Information
(808) 956-8564

Share by email