Aloha ʻĀina: Indigenous Women and 'Love of the Land' in Mary Kawena Pūkui's Hawaiian Mo'olelo - Emma Barnes University of Salford

Aloha ʻĀina: Indigenous Women and
 ‘Love of the Land’ in Mary Kawena
     Pūkui’s Hawaiian Mo’olelo.
              Emma Barnes
           University of Salford

Mary Kawena Pūku’i
• Introduction to the Hawaiian Language; An English-Hawaiian
  Vocabulary (1943)
• Hawaiian-English Dictionary (1957)

• The Polynesian Family System in Ka’u, Hawai’i (1957)
• Hawaiian Beliefs & Customs During Birth, Infancy and Childhood
  (1942)

• Place Names of Hawai’i (1974)
• ‘Ōlelo No‘eau: Hawaiian Proverbs & Poetical Sayings (1983)
• Nā Wahine: Hawaiian Proverbs and Inspirational Quotes
  Celebrating Women in Hawai’i (1983)

•   Hawaiian Folk Tales (1933)
•   The Legend of Kawelo and Other Hawaiian Folk Tales (1936)
•   Pikoi and Other Legends of the Island of Hawai’i (1949)
•   The Water of Kāne; and Other Legends of the Hawaiian Islands
    (1951)

Hawaiian Mo’olelo
• The word ‘mo’olelo’ is formed of two
  words, ’olelo’, which refers to ‘language,
  speech, word, utterance’ and mo’o, ‘a
  succession [or] series’ (Pūku’i, 1986,
  p.129)

• In literal terms, mo’olelo means ‘a
  succession of talk’, which encompasses
  the fact that these stories are expressions
  of knowledge passed down by ancestors
  (Silva, 2007; Ho’omanawanui, 2004).

Feminising the Pacific Islands
• In the colonial imagination, ‘Hawai’i is a “she”, the Western image of the
  Native “female” in her magical allure’ (Haunani-Kay Trask,1992, p.23).

• ‘The U.S. occupation in Hawai‘i was founded on gendered oppression,
  with the islands being viewed as feminine and therefore ready for
  masculine dominance’ (Kēhaulani Kauanui, 2008, p.285).

• Colonial maps ‘depict land and sea as unmarked, atemporal, and
  feminized voids, terra nullius and aqua nullius, unless traversed and /or
  occupied by (male) European agents of history’ (DeLoughrey, 2007, p.22)

‘Woman-of-the-Fire and
Woman-of-the-Water’

‘The older was the chiefess of
Hāla’i Hill. She had power
over fire and was Woman-of-
the-Fire. The younger ruled
over a smaller hill, Pu’u
Honu. She had power over
rain and was Woman-of-the-
Water’ (p.69).

‘“I shall make an offering to the gods”, she said. “Only so you can be
fed. I shall go into the imu. Do not try to hold me back but cover me
until no steam appears. On the third day you will see a cloud over our
imu. It will be like a woman with a shining face. That is your sign.
Uncover the imu and you will find food” (p.70).

‘“The cloud!” they cried. There, above the imu, was a shining cloud in
the form of a beautiful woman […] After that the gardens grew well
on Hāla’i Hill and the story of the chiefess’s offering went through the
country’ (p.70).

Mana Wahine
• ‘power of woman’ (Lilikala
  Kame’eleihiwa, 2001, p.72)
• ‘feminine spiritual power’ (Brandy
  Nalani McDougall, 2016, p.27)

• ‘They found the food the chiefess had named: sweet potatoes, pork
  and fish. There was food for men and food for women. The people
  were filled with joy and wonder as they spread a feast. “But our
  chiefess?” they questioned. “Where is she? Did she give her life to
  bring this food to us?”’ (p.70)

• “phenomena such as climate change do not occur in isolation from
  the broader socio-cultural, economic or political hierarchies that
  are already present in Pacific islands contexts and may do much to
  reinforce or even exacerbate existing inequalities” (Nicole George,
  2017, 116).

• In characterising the active restoration of the natural environment
  as female, Pūku’i subverts the colonial rhetoric that feminises the
  Pacific Islands to construct them as dominable.

• Mo’olelo demonstrate how Hawaiian women have been integral to
  the reparation of the environment as early as the nineteenth
  century.

• Considering Pūku’i’s mo’olelo as early climate change literature is
  one way in which to amplify the voices of Pacific Islander women
  in conversations surrounding climate change.

Works Cited:
Brandy Nālani McDougall, "Wondering and Laughing with Our Ancestors: Mana Wahine and the Mo‘olelo
of Hi‘iakaikapoliopele." Marvels & Tales. Vol. 30, no. 1, 2016, pp. 26-44.

Elizabeth McLeod, et al. "Raising the Voices of Pacific Island Women to Inform Climate Adaptation
Policies." Marine Policy, Vol. 93, 2018, pp. 178-185.

Lilikala Kame’eleihiwa, "NaWaHine Kapu: Divine Hawaiian Women." Women’s Rights and Human Rights.
Ed. Patricia Grimshaw, Katie Holmes and Marilyn Lake, Palgrave Macmillan, 2001, pp. 71-87.

Kyle Whyte,"Indigenous Women, Climate Change Impacts, and Collective Action." Hypatia. Vol. 29, no. 3,
2014, pp. 599-616.

Nicole George, "Climate change and ‘Architectures of Entitlement’." Climate Hazards, Disasters, and Gender
Ramifications. Ed. Catarina Kinnvall and Helle Rydstrom, Routledge, 2019, pp. 113-129.

Haunani-Kay Trask, "Lovely Hula Lands: Corporate Tourism and the Prostitution of Hawaiian
Culture." Border/Lines. Vol. 23, 1991, pp. 22-34.