"From a Native Daughter" PART IV- NATIVE HAWAIIANS IN A WHITE UNIVERSITY

I, too, chose to concentrate on Part IV of "From at Native Daughter" by Haunani-Kay Trask.

How can you not be caught up in this vivid portrait of Trask's indomitable fighting spirit tackling racial and gender injustices here on our own turf, the University of Hawai'i?

I had not come across this text in my other classes, so it was a ground-zero, honest refresher of old policies that dominated UH not so long ago.

Colonist-controlled education systems were still very much on the playing field during Trask's day in the 1980s. As she does throughout much of the book, Trask references other countries facing the same plight-- "Public education in Hawai'i is similar in purpose to Francophone education in French-controlled Tahiti and English education in Commonwealth New Zealand." (151) So far, the University of Hawai'i looked to be another instrument for colonist influences to hold their sway over the timeline of history, much in the way my own elementary school education depicted Columbus as a great and heroic explorer who the Native Americans were happy to make the acquaintance of. However, after Trask entered the workforce-- "sent to the metropole to become (an) assimilated professional" --she worked tirelessly to break the manacles of prejudice shaping the education system and transform the university into the model we think of today: a grounds for debating controversial issues and protesting against injustice. (152)

A common theme in our readings has been the concept of "fear" lurking in the minds of white colonists, who sought to assimilate or exterminate the colonized, lest they come to a position of threatening power. Trask faced a silent version of this war, one in which her superiors refused to confront her directly, but instead pulled every trick in the book to ensure she and her "radical" viewpoints would never be promoted to that position of influencing power. When Trask first applied for a position in the newly-born American Studies Department, despite earning the majority of faculty votes in the second round, the chair tried to quietly sweep her under the rug, voicing vague concerns that she was "unqualified." (156) The only way to win such a war is to vocalize that these undercurrent tensions do exist, and bring the public's attention to them, which finally prompted an awkward confrontation with the chair and supporting faculty members. However, bringing the spotlight to these racial tensions once isn't enough-- Trask had to remain as stout as an oak in the storms to come and persist. What Trask was fighting was a haole-wide mindset that could only be changed through time and successive generations-- the white woman who replaced the previous chair informed her that she should be "grateful" she had received the assistant professor position at all. (160) Finally, after Trask and her supporters refused to cave, the Hawaiian Studies department was founded, a battle which included "endless lobbying of two university administrations and of three state legislative sessions for funding." (186)

Student Joey Carter wrote a letter, in what he thought was a "safe" forum for him to condemn the use of the word haole and have a bunch of supporters to back him up. Trask was among the most vocal to inform him of the word's history, and why it wouldn't be leaving the table any time soon. Indeed, in modern day, haole is one of the most widely used terms from the Hawaiian language-- surfers joking about being haole, political movements using it out of anger. How has the word's connotation changed today?

For discussion, I'm curious about how education and textbook curriculums have changed--or haven't changed--in the recent millennium, not just in university settings, but as far back elementary school, as well. I mentioned how my own education praised America as settlers fleeing from persecution, and while great attention was paid to white people who suffered injustices (Salem witch trials, the heroic Martin Luther and his revolutionary Protestant reformation), a huge jump was made over whatever happened to the Native Americans. Indeed, from reading those old textbooks, you'd think we took a huge break from the Native Americans, and then came back to find them living peacefully on their allotted reservations. There was an attempt to tell the demise of Captain James Cook neutrally; the Hawaiians were still cast in a disapproving, "savage" light-- Cook had been helping his crew when one of the Hawaiians struck him "from behind" and stabbed him to death. Region has a great influence over the viewpoint from which history is told, there is no doubt. To my fellow students who grew up in Hawai'i, thinking back, how did your textbooks and teachers convey these stories?


Favorite Trask Quote: "Resistance is its own reward." (168)