Systemwide Events Calendar

Restaging Capt. Cook: Kanaka Ōiwi Women Making History in Territorial 51��׻��i

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

In 1928, the Territory of 51��׻��ʻi hosted the Cook Sesquicentennial which commemorated the anniversary of Captain Cook’s arrival. This celebration tried to legitimize white settler colonial rule by anointing Cook as a forefather who brought 51��׻��‘i into so-called modernity. These types of histories were largely disseminated by white settlers through state-sponsored texts, commissions, and institutions. I argue that aliʻi wahine, who were mostly excluded from these apparatuses, intervened by performing 51��׻��ian histories within the limited spaces available to them. I explore how ali‘i Emma Ahu‘ena Taylor and her cohort of women from ‘Ahahui Māmakakaua restaged settler-state histories during the sesquicentennial reenactment of Cook’s arrival. As elite, gendered interpreters of 51��׻��ian history, they brought 51��׻��ian men and women on stage to showcase 51��׻��ian cultural practices and politics that disrupted the colonial script. By doing so, they reasserted a Kānaka ‘Ōiwi sovereignty over the production of 51��׻��ian 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‘i wahine built and maintained sovereignties outside of the nation-state across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Noah is from Kunia, O‘ahu and currently resides in Hilo, 51��׻��‘i. Please email yuma@hawaii.edu to request the zoom link.

Event Sponsor
History, Mānoa Campus

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