History, Trauma, and the Discursive Construction of "Race" in John Dominis Holt's Waimea Summer

Abstract

In contemporary discussions about the literature of Hawai'i and its decolonization, a central problematic resulting from on-going Euro-American imperialism is the tension between genealogical and racial definitions of Hawaiianness. Haunani-Kay Trask in Decolonizing Literature argues for a notion of that is based upon [g]enealogical claims of Hawaiians as the first people of Hawaici, a claim that establishes their status as indigene and Native (170). She argues, It is the insistence that our Native people have a claim to nationhood on soil that generates the ignorant and ill-intentioned response that nationalists are racists. In truth, Hawaiians are the only people who can claim Hawai'i as their ldhui, or nation (170). I quote this passage to show how Trask suggests the way in which genealogical claims, when viewed from more Western perspectives of family descent and pedigree, can be taken to imply a more racialized idea of ancestry. J. Kehaulani Kauanui has aptly noted the difference between pedigree and genealogy in the contemporary sovereignty struggle. The Hawai'i State Constitution and the Homes Commission Act of 1920 define native Hawaiian in terms of blood