COM 0151.001 2022-2024 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

101 MMNHWG REPORT BACKGROUND Colonization and Kanaka Maoli Erasure in Hawaii, Kanaka Maoli women engaged in inter- The piko (center) of NHVVG violence is coloniza- course with these men. Their gender and sexuali- tion. Colonization is a structure that originates ty was non-monogamous and non-heteronorma- from the history of Kanaka Maoli relationships tive. Kanaka Maoli women then became spaces with colonial powers, such as the United States, of colonial violence, through the rapid decline of and is upheld through various colonial mecha- the Kanaka Mach population from sexually trans- nisms. In Hawaii, these colonial mechanisms mitted diseases to which they had no immunity. are ideologies that justify the displacement and Furthermore, when businessmen from the U.S. erasure of Kanaka Maoli through economic, so- and European nations established the whaling cial, and environmental laws and practices of the industry in Hawaii in the 18th century, they came United States government. to expect that Kanaka Maoli women would be available to them for sex in exchange for material In 1893, Queen Lili'uokalani, the last reigning goods, thus, introducing the concept of prostitu- monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii was illegally tion parallel to the introduction of foreign capi- overthrown and falsely imprisoned by an oligar- talistic systems of currency and exchange. When chy of U.S. businessmen. Hawai'i's legal annex- a kapu (ban) was placed on prostitution, whalers ation has yet to be ratified, meaning according and businessmen responded violently. to the laws of the United States, the Kingdom of Hawai'i, and the United Nations, Hawaii is -3= - an independent nation heavily occupied by the Q n Sh y United States. Through colonization, the laws of f , the United States that govern an illegally annexed Independent Native Hawaiian nation, is pretense for continued systemic violence via erasure and displacement of Kanaka Maoli. Kanaka Mach women are displaced by coloniza- tion in unique ways. For example, Kanaka Maoli r women are victims of gender-based violence such as domestic violence and sexual assault more than any other population in Hawaii (OHA et al., 2020). Prior to the arrival of the first colonizers from Britain in 1778, Kanaka Maoli practiced gender fluid beliefs. In one of the first acts of colonial displacement, U.S. missionaries replaced Kanaka Maoli wornen's 'olelo Hawaii names with Christian first names and a patrilineal surname. Traditionally, names were passed down matrilineally, so erasing and replacing Kanaka Maoli narnes signified an ideological shift frorn a Hawaii society that honored rnatrilineality to If I only knew how to soy one word in one that was congruent with western patriarchy. their language. Additionally, when British colonizers first arrived ----------------- -