Hawaiian Spirituality and Religious Syncretism in Gary Pak’s Children of a Fireland

Abstract

ABSTRACT Gary Pak’s Children of a Fireland (2004) provides a rather panoramic view into contemporary Hawaiian culture through its depiction of a fictional town on the brink of disaster. The multi-layered novel, which interweaves cultural, geopolitical, and socio-historical threads, remains largely unexplored and is thus fertile ground for this study. Focusing on Hawaiian spirituality, this paper traces the journeys of the two savior figures depicted in the novel, highlighting the significance of their positioning as literary doubles, particularly in light of post-contact Hawaiian religious syncretism. To this end the paper starts with the necessary background and then introduces the spiritual journey and sacrifice of the Christian savior and of the native shamanic savior in the narrative. The paper finally posits that the portrayal of two saviors reflecting the historically oppositional native and colonial modes of spirituality, rather than one balanced syncretic savior, is a reflection of an internal struggle faced by many during the process of spiritual identity negotiation, which is born of the colonial purist approach, and thus serves as an invitation to generate a new discussion on religion and spirituality in contemporary Hawaii that embraces and draws upon the present diversity.