Ka Pae Hawaii: Charting Indigenous Community in a Multicentered World

Abstract

Abstract:Approximately half of Kanaka (Hawaiians) live beyond the islands of Hawai'i but these off-island Kanaka are not always recognized as a significant part of the Lāhui (Hawaiian community), where discourses of identity often privilege "rootedness" to the islands over the "routedness" of Kanaka living abroad. Articulating a culture of mobility in Kanaka terminology shows how Kanaka around the world count within the Lāhui. This article contrasts two narratives within the Lāhui—the kama'āina (child of the land) narrative and the Hawai'inuiākea (broad expansive Hawai'i) narrative. An analysis of the latter narrative shows that our kūpuna (ancestors) traveled across their known world establishing multiple "Hawai'is" and that they sought knowledge from beyond the islands of Hawai'i to enrich the Lāhui—embodying the value of Hawai'i 'ima loa (the Hawai'i who searches far and wide). Kanaka living beyond the islands of Hawai'i are continuing the work of our kūpuna. Ka Pae Hawaii is a call to think pluralistically; reworking the well-known phrase "ka pae 'āina o Hawai'i," literally "the cluster of islands, Hawai'i," into "ka pae Hawai'i," "the cluster of Hawai'is." Our kūpuna conceptualized the world as a place of possibility, a place of association, and a place of self-discovery; as a place where we find ka pae Hawai'i.