Disappeared News

This comment was just posted to Henry Curtis' article Princess Ka`iulani (5/15/2010). Since the article is old and comments aren’t very visible unless you want to click and read them, it would go unnoticed. So I’m promoting it here as an article.

Henry wrote about his impressions and concerns after attending opening night of the film (click the link above to read). The commenter is asking for some reliable references (see the end of the comment).

I visited and was impressed by her website. I hope that some of you might send suggestions her way.

Thanks

--Larry

Greetings. I just wanted say that I saw this film last night for the very first time via Netflix. I have known nothing of the actual history of Hawaii beyond a cursory mention of King Kamehameha in some far distant text book in middle school. I grew up in Southern California so surfing was a part of the culture. My mother fell in love with a Hawai'ian boy when she was a girl. My grandfather played his guitar Hawai'ian-style. I read A Different Mirror: A Multicultural History of the United States by Ronald Takaki in the late 1990s and as an activist in Virginia working to reclaim Richmond's oldest municipal African Burial Ground from its 2nd asphalt blanket of a parking lot at the hands of our local university, I knew that Hawai'i was a victim of criminal US imperialism. As an African-Norwegian-American woman I could see clearly that few to no Hawai'ians were involved in the writing and directing of the film. On sight, I accepted that Ms. Kilcher might have Polynesian ancestry of some kind, so I was a little startled to read that she is Incan/Swiss. I also think she is a fine actress who did a good job at some key moments in the film. All that said, I did not watch this historical dramatization with any conviction that it would all turn out to be true, especially in its timeline and interpersonal or political details. It was a story. What it did for me and my husband was to drive us to the internet this morning looking for sites and booklists that COULD give us 1) a history of Hawai'i, 2) a factual account of Ka'iulani's life, and 3) a sense of what Hawai'ians thought of this film - in general as well as from the perspective of those engaged in the struggle for self-determination. For stimulating our curiosity, I am grateful for this film. However, my real purpose in commenting here is to share that while I am not usually facinated by "royalty", one thing that occurred to me while watching this film was the way in which a monarch, especially of a society being deliberately obliterated, whose life is steeped in the profound and mundane rituals of their society can come, at a key moment, to embody RESISTANCE simply because they embody their culture. That is clearly as powerful a symbol as a resistance fighter dying on the fields and was strengthened for me by seeing the videos and articles that so fiercely defend the integrity of this woman against the detraction and trivialization of contemporary pop culture filmmaking. That she died so young, even if pneumonia was the practical cause, adds to the sense of a nation's recognition that the old way has died and the new ways are not yet revealed. And yet, we fight. I agree wholeheartedly that "It is time for the Kanaka Maoli/Kanaka Maoli-supporter film/documentarist/writing community to make a PONO documentary free from oversexualized, pseudo-Hawaiian silliness and fact-morphing: a film that "stars" Ka'iulani as herself...in her own photos, her own letters, in the accounts of the Hawaiian language press and other accurate period records." I respectfully look forward to that event. In the meantime, I would appreciate recommendations for books on the history of the Kanaka/Maoli people.
Sincerely,
Ana Edwards
Chair, Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, sacredgroundproject.blogspot.com
Host, DefendersLIVE, defendersliveradio.blogspot.com
Richmond, Virginia

Permalink posted by Larry @ 11/26/2011 04:55:00 PM