Kaʻau Palapala (Forty Publications): Some Key ʻŌiwi Texts in Studying Hawaiian Literature

By kuʻualoha hoʻomanawanui

This is the first of a series on foundational readings in Hawaiian literature. 
 
     In over three decades of studying, researching, teaching, and writing about Hawaiian literature, I’ve grappled with some key questions in each of these capacities, including: what is Hawaiian literature? What are (or should be) its boundaries? Is there a “canon” of primary and/or critical texts? What kinds of theories and methodologies should be used in evaluating Hawaiian literature? What kinds of theories and methodologies come out of Hawaiian literature? What does Hawaiian literature, and the study of such, contribute to the larger fields of Literary Studies, Hawaiian Studies, and Indigenous Studies? What does Hawaiian literature contribute to the world?
     I have struggled with these and other questions over the years. Thus, to see the blossoming of Hawaiian Literature as an integral part of Literary Studies, Hawaiian Studies, Indigenous Studies, and fields beyond these and to contribute to such growth is exciting. Each year, more critical scholarship and important primary texts are produced that add to the depth and breadth of the field, and more importantly to Hawaiian communities. The expansion of Hawaiian literature compliments and enhances traditional Hawaiian knowledge, cultural and political activism and social justice, and Indigenous-centered education. 
     It is impossible to teach every primary or critical text in any given class or semester. In addition, there is currently no comprehensive scaffolding of Hawaiian literary texts that exists in classes across the board in teaching Hawaiian literature at the pre-college or university level. One question students, peers and community people constantly ask me is, “What should I be reading if I’m serious about studying Hawaiian literature?” Thus, I’ve compiled an initial “let’s get started” list of texts that embody an ʻŌiwi-centered understanding of “Hawaiian literature.” 
     At the most basic level, “Hawaiian literature” is writing produced or set in Hawaiʻi, written by or featuring characters who are Kānaka ʻŌiwi, that reflect certain themes, devices, styles, language, worldviews, etc. that are culturally-based or derived [1]. This is important to note, as in popular western thought, what constitutes “Hawaiian” literature has far too often been framed by highly stereotyped, often racist haole imagination—the dusky maiden/lusty hula girl, the tiki with “voodoo” powers, or the tragic Noble Savage, set in a “paradise lost” Hawaiʻi. Such stereotyped images have developed from journals of early European explorers and missionaries, carried forward across time in traditional stories collected and edited by haole visitors and settlers, many with no literary training, or authored by haole without fluency in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi or depth of understanding of Hawaiian knowledge and cultural practices. Traditional moʻolelo, often condensed and mistranslated from ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi as propaganda to support assimilative settler colonial efforts that help transform Hawaiʻi from an independent nation to a U.S. possession. Collectively, the appropriation of Hawaiian moʻolelo, which provided skewed, inaccurate, and misleading portrayals of Hawaiian stories, culture, people, and places, also led to the development of literature about Hawaiʻi and Hawaiians composed in the same manner. 
     Thus, the recommended primary texts (sections 1-3) are authored by Kanaka ʻŌiwi; secondary text authors (section 4) include Indigenous scholars from the Pacific and North America.
      In the list below, I’ve includes a brief overview of some key texts I recommend when engaging in the study of Hawaiian literature. Because counting by fours is a traditional ʻŌiwi practice, I’ve conceptualized the list as a kaʻau, or group of forty—forty titles in four categories with ten entries each: 1. Moʻolelo and Kaʻao (primary texts), 2. Contemporary Literature (primary texts), 3. Life Writing (primary and secondary texts), and 4. Secondary critical texts in and beyond Hawaiʻi. It was challenging to pare it down to these texts, and there are many others that can easily be added to each category. Thus, this is not a complete list, just one starting point. This is the first of many such lists, by me and others in the field, one that will spark enthusiastic and thoughtful conversations. We have conceptualized “kaʻau palapala” as a series for this reason. The next installment of this kaʻau palapala series which will focus on moʻolelo Hawaiʻi that have never been translated into English.
     There are multiple ways to begin studying Hawaiian literature, and as the well-known and apt ʻōlelo noʻeau wisely reminds us, ʻaʻole pau ka ʻike i ka hālau hoʻokahi—not all knowledge is contained in one school, and in this case, on one list. 

I. Primary Text: Moʻolelo and Kaʻao.
Some Early Publications and Translation of Traditional Hawaiian Literature.

1. Desha, Stephen Langhern. “Moolelo Kaao no [Ke]Kuhaupio, ke Koa Kaulana o ke Au o Kamehameha ka Nui,” Ka Hoku o Hawaii, December 16, 1920-September 11, 1924. Frazier, Frances, trans. Kamehameha and His Warrior Kekūhaupiʻo. Honolulu: Kamehameha Schools, 2000. Available online on www.ulukau.org in Hawaiian and English versions. 

2. Haleʻole, S. N. Ke Kaao o Laieikawai, ka Hiwahiwa o Paliuli, ka Wahine o ka Liula. Honolulu: H. M. Whitney, 1863. English translation: Lāʻieikawai, eds. Dennis Kawaharada, Richard Hamasaki, and Esther T. Mookini. Honolulu: Kalamakū Press, 2006. 

3. Hoʻoulumāhiehie. Ka Moʻolelo o Hiʻiakaikapoliopele, ka Wahine i ka Hikina o ka Lā, ka Uʻi Palekoki Uila o Halemaʻumaʻu. Hilo: Ka Hoku o Hawaii, 1924-1928. Honolulu: Awaiaulu Press, 2006. Nogelmeier, Puakea et. al., eds. trans., The Epic Tale of Hiʻiakaikapoliopele, the Woman of the Sunrise, the Lighting-skirt Beauty of Halemaʻumaʻu. Honolulu: Awaiaulu Press, 2006. 

4. ʻĪʻī, John Papa. “Kalamainuʻu and Punaʻaikoaʻe.” English translation by Marie Alohalani Brown. In The Penguin Book of Mermaids. Eds. Cristina Bacchilega and Marie Alohalani Brown. New York: Penguin, 2019. 

5. Kameʻeleihiwa, Lilikalā. He Moʻolelo Kaʻao o Kamapuaʻa (A Legendary Tradition of Kamapuaʻa, the Hawaiian Pig-God), an annotated translation of a Hawaiian epic from Ka Leo o ka Lahui, June 22, 1891-July 23, 1891. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1996.
 
6. Liliʻuokalani. The Kumulipo, a Hawaiian Creation Myth. Kentfield: Pueo Press, 1978 (originally published in 1898). 

7.  Manu, Moses. Keaomelemele. English translation by Mary Kawena Pukui. Ed. M. Puakea Nogelmeier. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 2002.

8. Nakuina, Emma. "Kahalaopuna." Republished in Nanaue the Shark Man and Other Hawaiian Shark Stories, ed. Dennis Kawaharada. Honolulu: Kalamakū Press, 1994.

9. Nakuina, Moses. The Wind Gourd of Laʻamaomao. English translation by Sarah Nākoa and Esther Mookini. Honolulu: Kalamakū Press, 1992. Original text: Moolelo Hawaii o Pakaa ame Ku-a-Pakaa, Na Kahu Iwikuamoo o Keawenuiaumi ke Alii o Hawaii, a o na Moopuna hoi o Laamaomao! Ke Kamaeu nana i Hoolakalaka na Makani a pau o na Mokupuni o Hawaii nei, a uhao iloko o kana Ipu Kaulana i Kapaia o ka Ipumakani o Laamaomao. Honolulu: 1902; Honolulu: Kalamakū Press, 1992. 

10. Pukui, Mary Kawena and Laura Green. Folktales of Hawaiʻi. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1995 (1928).
 

II. Primary Texts: Contemporary Hawaiian Literature in English (short stories, poetry, novels, drama)

1. Apio, Alani. Kamau. Honolulu: Palila Books, 1994. (drama)

2. Balaz, Joe. Pidgin Eye. Honolulu: ʻAla Press, 2019. (poetry)

3. Holt, John Dominis. Waimea Summer. Honolulu: Topgallant, 1976. (novel)

4. Kahakauwila, Kristiana. This is Paradise: Stories. New York: Hogarth, 2013.
(short stories)

5. Kanae, Lisa. Islands Linked by Ocean. Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge Press, 2009.
(short stories)

6. Kaʻōpio, Matthew. Written in the Sky. Honolulu: Mutual Publishing, 2005. (novel)

7. Kneubuhl, Victoria Nālani. Hawaiʻi Nei, Island Plays. Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge Press, 2002. (drama)

8. McDougall, Brandy Nālani. The Salt Wind, Ka Makani Paʻakai. Honolulu: Kuleana ʻŌiwi Press, 2008. (poetry)

9. Parker, Lehua. One Boy, No Water. Niuhi Shark Saga. Mendota Heights: Jolly Fish Press, 2012. (novel)

10. Trask, Haunani Kay. Light in a Crevice Never Seen. Corvalis: Calyx Books, 1994. (poetry)


III. Primary and Secondary Texts: ʻŌiwi Non-fiction and Life-writing

1. Brown, Marie Alohalani. Facing the Spears of Change: The Life and Legacy of John Papa ʻĪʻī. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2016. 

2. Holt, John Dominis. Recollections, Memoirs of John Dominis Holt, 1919-1935. Honolulu: Kūpaʻa Press, 1993. 

3. Iaukea, Sydney. The Queen and I, a story of dispossession and reconnection in Hawaiʻi. Oakland: University of California Press, 2011. 

4. Irwin, Bernice Piʻilani. I Knew Queen Liliʻuokalani. Honolulu: Bernice Piʻilani Irwin 1960; Honolulu: First Peoples' Productions, 2000.  

5. Koʻolau, Piʻilani and Kahikina Kelekona. The True Story of Kaluaikoʻolau, as told by his wife Piʻilani. English translation by Francis Frazier. Līhuʻe: Kauaʻi Historical Society, 2001. 

6. Liliʻuokalani. Hawaiʻi’s Story by Hawaiʻi’s Queen. Honolulu: Hui Hānai, 2013 (1898).

7. Naone Hall, Dana. Life of the Land, Articulations of a Native Writer. Honolulu: ʻAi Pōhaku Press, 2017. 

8. Sheldon, John G. (Kahikina Kelekona). Ka Buke Moolelo o Hon. Joseph K. Nawahi (The Biography of Joseph K. Nāwahī). Honolulu: Bulletin Publishing Co., 1908. English translation: M. Puakea Nogelmeier, trans. The Biography of Joseph K. Nāwahī. Honolulu: Hawaiian Historical Society, 1988.

9. Silva, Noenoe K. The Power of the Steel-tipped Pen, Reconstructing Native Hawaiian Intellectual History. Durham: Duke University Press, 2017.

10. Trask, Haunani Kay. From a Native Daughter, Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaiʻi. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1999 (1993). 
 

IV. Secondary Texts: Indigenous Literary Studies Scholarship in and beyond Hawaiʻi

1. Dudoit, Mahealani. “Against Extinction: A Legacy of Native Hawaiian Resistance Literature.” The Ethnic Studies Story: Politics and Social Movements in Hawai’i; Social Process in Hawai‘i 39 (1999). 

2. Hereniko, Vilsoni and Rob Wilson, eds. Inside/Out, Literature, Cultural Politics and Identity in the New Pacific. Landham: Rutledge, 1999. 

3. hoʻomanawanui, kuʻualoha. Voices of Fire, Reweaving the Literary Lei of Pele and Hiʻiaka Literature. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014. 

4. Hopkins, J. Uluwehi. "Moʻolelo as Resistance: The Kaona of ʻKahalaopuna' in a Colonized Environment." Narrative Culture, vol. 6, no. 2, Thinking with Stories in Times of Conflict  (Fall 2019): 229-250. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13110/narrcult.6.2.0229

5. Justice, Daniel Heath. Why Indigenous Literature Matters. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2018.

6. King, Thomas. The Truth about Stories. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003. 

7. McDougall, Brandy Nālani. Finding Meaning, Kaona and Contemporary Hawaiian Literature. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2016. 

8. Thaman, Konai Helu. “Of Daffodils and Heilala, Understanding (Cultural) Contexts in Pacific Literature. In Navigating Islands and Continents, Contestations and Conversations in and around the Pacific, eds. Cynthia Franklin, Ruth Hsu, and Suzanne Kosanke. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2000. 

9. Weaver, Jace, Craig Womack, Robert Warrior, and Lisa Brooks, eds. American Indian Literary Nationalism. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2006. 

10. Wendt, Albert. “Tatauing the Post-Colonial Body.” SPAN 42-43 (April-October 1996): 15-29. Web. http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/authors/wendt/tatauing.asp.


NOTES
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[1]. hoʻomananawanui, “He Ahu Moʻolelo: E Hoʻokahua i ka Paepae Moʻolelo Palapala Hawaiʻi (A Cairn of Stories: Establishing a Foundation of Hawaiian Literature),” Palapala: A Journal for Hawaiian Language and Literature, 1 (2017), 54.