Hawaii Street Names as an Anti-Conquest Act

The politics of language, gender, power and place, impacts the interpretation and articulation of Hawaii’s colonial history. Power, according to Geographer RDK Herman, is reasserted though Hawaii’s physical land as well as the symbolic space of memory. People in positions of privilege (historically white males) give themselves the authority and right to use words and speak words, often silencing and marginalizing women and people of color. In Hawaii, for example, European colonizers forcefully asserted the right to name and claim space on the Hawaiian islands. They took down Hawaiian street names, and replaced them with their own street names using English words, names and systems (e.g. Boyleston Street; 10^th Avenue). Because street names were often named after significant male Hawaiian leaders, its removal from neighborhood street posts is a symbolic act of castration, an erasing of power, masculinity and legacy of indigenous Hawaiian leaders. As colonizers re-name and reclaim space, they assert power through the act of erasing historical memory and its symbolic meaning, as well as the voices and presence of the native Hawaiians who occupied, ruled and claimed ownership over land.

In the contemporary, I notice that Hawaii has re-asserted power by re-naming the streets with Hawaiian names. The persistence of Hawaiian place names is an anti-conquest act that not simply glorifies but preserves and represents native Hawaiian history and culture. It pacifies colonization and puts power back into the hands of the local people. This re-articulation reminds us that Hawaii’s history and heritage cannot be and will not be forgotten. Herman critiques however, that despite these measures, Hawaiian place names are unfortunately used for the commodification of culture. They are used to conjure stereotypic images of both nativity and paradise to sell Hawaii as a desirable place for national tourism. Regardless, place-naming is an important political act because it shapes the ways in which the history of Hawaii is remembered, forgotten and interpreted.

Reference: “The Aloha State” by RDK Herman; Annals of the Association of American Geographers 89(1): 1999.

Modernization of Hawaii

[This is one of my favorite Hawaiian songs.
I appreciate the politics of music.]

Song title: "Hawaii 78"
Artist: Isreal (IZ)

Ua mau ke ea o ka `âina i ka pono `o Hawai'i (repeat)
[Being perpetuated (is) the sovereignty of the land to righteousness/to balance, Hawai`i ]

If just for a day our king and queen
Would visit all these islands and saw everything
How would they feel about the changes of our land
Could you just imagine if they were around
And saw highways on their sacred grounds
How would they feel about this modern city life?

Tears would come from each other's eyes
As they would stop to realize
That our people are in great, great danger now
How would they feel?
Would their smiles be content, then cry

Chorus:
Cry for the gods, cry for the people
Cry for the land that was taken away
And then yet you'll find, Hawai'i.

Could you just imagine they came back
And saw traffic lights and railroad tracks
How would they feel about this modern city life
Tears would come from each other's eyes
As they would stop to realize
That our land is in great, great danger now.

All the fighting that the King has done
To conquer all these islands, now these condominiums
How would he feel if he saw Hawai'i nei?
How would he feel? Would his smile be content, then cry?

(E hana hou i ka hui)
Repeat chorus

Ua mau ke ea o ka `âina i ka pono `o Hawai'i
Ua mau ke ea o ka `âina i ka pono `o Hawai'i.