Mälama Pono i ka 'Äina
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This façade of colorful noise and clamor has been built by the billion-dollar tourism industry to capture the picture-perfect, postcard vacation for gaga and gullible tourists of all incomes through a vigorous bottlenecking of the kosher Hawaiian culture. The tourism industry eagerly crafts an iron mask across the fragility of islands; while behind the mask, the face of Hawaii's true nature corrodes from decades of distortion and exploitation.
The first step is to pry away the mask, and see what, exactly, constitutes the Hawaiian cultural landscape; a hint—it’s not the tourist’s eyeshot of grass skirts or even “Aloha!” for that matter. Rather, the Hawaiian cultural landscape derives from a potpourri of cultural and environmental ideologies that have evolved over years of cultural isolation and is now at risk from acculturation and assimilation. In order to define the “true Hawai’i,” one must travel back to the beginning.
The first step is to pry away the mask, and see what, exactly, constitutes the Hawaiian cultural landscape; a hint—it’s not the tourist’s eyeshot of grass skirts or even “Aloha!” for that matter. Rather, the Hawaiian cultural landscape derives from a potpourri of cultural and environmental ideologies that have evolved over years of cultural isolation and is now at risk from acculturation and assimilation. In order to define the “true Hawai’i,” one must travel back to the beginning.
In any Hawaiian creation story, the islands were born from the expanse of the sky and out of the dark void of the ocean by god-beings and demiurgic forces of nature. Life is breathed into the first man, Haloa, by these same processes. From him, his ancestors, the Hawaiian people, were charged with the duty of sustaining the islands. Nature, in turn, would care for the people. Kepä Maly, Hawaiian Cultural Historian and Resource Specialist, notes that the Hawaiian culture “evolved in a healthy relationship with the nature around it” (2001, p. 2).
Maly continues in her assertion that Native Hawaiians have not differentiated their culture from the natural beauty they saw around them and believe in a strict interrelation between the health of the land and the health of the culture as a whole. “In the Hawaiian mind all aspects of the land—all natural and cultural resources are interrelated, and that all are culturally significant” (2001, p. 2).
Maly continues in her assertion that Native Hawaiians have not differentiated their culture from the natural beauty they saw around them and believe in a strict interrelation between the health of the land and the health of the culture as a whole. “In the Hawaiian mind all aspects of the land—all natural and cultural resources are interrelated, and that all are culturally significant” (2001, p. 2).
Maly illustrates this point of fact with further Hawaiian mythology. Nature of all forms—“from the skies and mountain peaks, to the watered valleys and plains, to the shoreline and ocean depths—were the embodiments of Hawaiian gods and deities” (2001, p. 1). MythHome details that from the rising of the sun, Ku, to its setting, Hina, every rock, tree, and creature had a life, a spirit, a name, from the lowliest squid in a fishing net, Kanaloa, and the most stoic of trees, Kane, to the great storms that hailed rain from the heavens, Lono, and the fiery hell of the volcano, Pele (Hawaiian Gods, 2009). Maly discloses that “these values—the sense of place—have developed over hundreds of generations of evolving cultural attachment to the natural, physical, and spiritual environments” (2001, p. 1).
Unfortunately, all aspects of the Hawaiian cultural landscape—both its natural and cultural resources—are negatively impacted by tourism and mainland influence. It appears Hawai’i is being chipped away at all sides. So, it’s no surprise when Native Hawaiian activists strike up spiteful words against American imperialism and interventionism, as the money-hungry haole, or foreigners, raise up skyscrapers and luxury resorts across their golden beaches and over the graves of hallowed forests. Passionate Hawaiian activists, such as Haunani-Kay (2010), Native Hawaiian and long-time activist for Hawaiian sovereignty, reprobates the tourism industry for the “prostitution of Hawaiian culture” (par. 4):
Unfortunately, all aspects of the Hawaiian cultural landscape—both its natural and cultural resources—are negatively impacted by tourism and mainland influence. It appears Hawai’i is being chipped away at all sides. So, it’s no surprise when Native Hawaiian activists strike up spiteful words against American imperialism and interventionism, as the money-hungry haole, or foreigners, raise up skyscrapers and luxury resorts across their golden beaches and over the graves of hallowed forests. Passionate Hawaiian activists, such as Haunani-Kay (2010), Native Hawaiian and long-time activist for Hawaiian sovereignty, reprobates the tourism industry for the “prostitution of Hawaiian culture” (par. 4):
The commercialization of Hawaiian culture proceeds with calls for more sensitive marketing of our Native values and practices. After all, a prostitute is only as good as her income-producing talents. These talents, in Hawaiian terms, are the hula, our dance; our generosity, or aloha; the u'i or youthful beauty of our women and men; and the continuing allure of our lands and waters, that is, of our place, Hawai'i. (Haunani-Kay, 2010)
Hawai’i has become home to many cultures, races, and tongues. Some are just passersby that come on the wind, hoping to catch a glimpse of the endangered pedigree. Others come to seek root on the land, digging into the rocks and infrastructure of the islands and causing them to crack and splinter and spit-up the native weeds. Hawai’i has never seen a more diverse crowd, and fears run deep that it is at risk of losing its own.
At statehood 40 years ago, Hawai’i residents “outnumbered tourists by more than 2 to 1.” In the year 2010, the vacationist-infested state saw tourists “outnumber residents 6 to 1” and “outnumber Native Hawaiians by 30 to 1,” asserts Haunani-Kay (2010). The next year in 2011, the United States Census recorded a demographic constitution of the islands composed of 26.0 percent Caucasian, 38.5 percent Asian, only 10.1 percent Native Hawaiian (or other Pacific islander), and 22.9 percent as some dyad or triad of the three. Astonishingly, the combined minority percentile, consisting of Hispanic/Latino, African American, and American Indian, just exceeds that of the Native Hawaiian population by 1.5 percent.
At statehood 40 years ago, Hawai’i residents “outnumbered tourists by more than 2 to 1.” In the year 2010, the vacationist-infested state saw tourists “outnumber residents 6 to 1” and “outnumber Native Hawaiians by 30 to 1,” asserts Haunani-Kay (2010). The next year in 2011, the United States Census recorded a demographic constitution of the islands composed of 26.0 percent Caucasian, 38.5 percent Asian, only 10.1 percent Native Hawaiian (or other Pacific islander), and 22.9 percent as some dyad or triad of the three. Astonishingly, the combined minority percentile, consisting of Hispanic/Latino, African American, and American Indian, just exceeds that of the Native Hawaiian population by 1.5 percent.
Of course, the blending society may not be catalyzing the distortion and exploitation of the Hawaiian culture as the tourism industry stands to be do, it results in various socioeconomic factors provoking the dispersion of the Hawaiian culture. Haunani-Kay continues in her chide against haole, foreign, involvement. For one, she enounces that the major population growth “ensures the trend toward a rapidly expanded population that receives lower per capita income.” The burden of tourism only adds to the economic toll. Residents must compete with the tourism industry for land, and the cost of single family housing skyrockets. It all comes down to a basic economic principle: too much demand not enough supply. There simply isn’t a sufficient amount of Hawai’i to go around. Additionally, Haunai-Kay explains that the promising economy “encourages foreign investment” thereby driving up inflation. This further contributes to the high costs of living. As a result, many Native people feel encouraged “to leave their island home in search of better economic conditions on the American continent...Diaspora increases while new immigrants arrive from Asia” (2010).
“Today, as a result of the cultural diversity of [the] island community, the island residents look at the natural and cultural resources around them in different ways and apply different values to them”—and not necessarily Hawaiian values, states Maly (2001, p. 1). The inhabitants of the islands do not posses the same adoration for the land today as they did 40, 100, or 200 years ago. The impact of tourism has greatly impacted local environment so that the Hawaii’s natural resources are as much as stake as its cultural resources. According to The University of Hawaii Manoa Environmental Center,these long-standing environmental issues derive from the same socioeconomic pressures local residents face: “increasing pressures of human population concentrated on a limited island land mass.” Concerns range from land use changes and energy development to watershed management to wastewater and solid waste disposal. Additionally, Hawaii’s environmental concerns are “particularly acute” concerning Hawaii’s renowned “showcase of evolution” (Hawaii’s Environment, 2012).
The remoteness of the islands leads some to believe that these problems are specific to the archipelago. However, The Environmental Center asserts that Hawaii’s problems “are not unique, but they are intensified by the natural limits imposed by our oceanic island topography and isolation from other land masses” (Hawaii’s Environment, 2012). Many small cultures face similar situations, especially when addressing island cultures of the Pacific. Bali, for example, a small island province in Indonesia, receives, on average, more than a million tourists a year, Bruno Phillip reports (2012)—as compared to Hawaii’s growing seven to eight million (The big picture: Tourism and eco-tourism in Hawai'i, n.d.). Phillip continues in his assertion that Bali, too, has fallen “prey to the accumulated effects of mass tourism, unbridled consumption of resources and environmental collapse” (2012).
But there is hope; tourism isn’t a curse so much as a necessary evil. Tourism does funnel billions of dollars into the Hawaiian economy each year and has helped to revolutionize and modernize the islands. Particular tourist programs may even be counterintuitive to this point, for they play a part in the aspiration of educating mainlanders and cooperating sustainable programs to ensure the tropical luxury vacation survives to see more tourists. Wildlife organizations, such as the Pacific Whale Foundation and Polynesian Cultural Center for example, take base in Hawai’i and feed off tourists’ hunger and so doing, serve to ensure a brighter future for Hawaii’s authentic natural and cultural resources.
But there is hope; tourism isn’t a curse so much as a necessary evil. Tourism does funnel billions of dollars into the Hawaiian economy each year and has helped to revolutionize and modernize the islands. Particular tourist programs may even be counterintuitive to this point, for they play a part in the aspiration of educating mainlanders and cooperating sustainable programs to ensure the tropical luxury vacation survives to see more tourists. Wildlife organizations, such as the Pacific Whale Foundation and Polynesian Cultural Center for example, take base in Hawai’i and feed off tourists’ hunger and so doing, serve to ensure a brighter future for Hawaii’s authentic natural and cultural resources.
So don’t fall dupe to the "big kahuna" surfing the waves or the graceful wahine dancing the hula to the sweet sound of the ukulele. While they are not completely inaccurate, such degenerative stereotypes do not capably represent the complexity and integrity of the culture. The Hawaiians of the Pacific are a strong people, as resolved as the igneous earth on which they stand. Until we find a way to abate the forceful tides of touristic influence, the waves will continue to beat against and erode away at even the hardest stone until nothing remains but scattered grains of sand washed up on a black beach.
References
The big picture: Tourism and eco-tourism in Hawai'i. (n.d.). Sapphire. Retrieved from http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/spinners/Tourism.
Haunani-Kay. (2010, April 2). Tourism and the prostitution of Hawaiian culture. Cultural Survival. Retrieved from
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/author/haunani-kay-0.
Hawaii. (2013, January 10). United States Census Bureau. Retrieved from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/15000.html.
Hawaii’s environment. (2012). University of Hawaii: The environmental center. Retrieved from http://www.hawaii.edu/envctr/.
Hawaiian gods. (2009). Myth Home. Retreived from http://www.mythome.org/hawaiig.html.
Lensing, Becca. (2013, February 8). Defining the Hawaiian cultural landscape.
Maly, K. (2001). Mälama pono i ka ‘äina: An overview of the Hawaiian cultural landscape. Retrieved from
http://www.kumupono.com/Hawaiian%20Cultural%20Landscape.pdf.
Phillip, B. (2012, August 7). Beauty of Bali under threat from pressures of mass tourism. The guardian. Retreived from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/07/bali-tourism-threatens-natural-beauty.
Haunani-Kay. (2010, April 2). Tourism and the prostitution of Hawaiian culture. Cultural Survival. Retrieved from
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/author/haunani-kay-0.
Hawaii. (2013, January 10). United States Census Bureau. Retrieved from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/15000.html.
Hawaii’s environment. (2012). University of Hawaii: The environmental center. Retrieved from http://www.hawaii.edu/envctr/.
Hawaiian gods. (2009). Myth Home. Retreived from http://www.mythome.org/hawaiig.html.
Lensing, Becca. (2013, February 8). Defining the Hawaiian cultural landscape.
Maly, K. (2001). Mälama pono i ka ‘äina: An overview of the Hawaiian cultural landscape. Retrieved from
http://www.kumupono.com/Hawaiian%20Cultural%20Landscape.pdf.
Phillip, B. (2012, August 7). Beauty of Bali under threat from pressures of mass tourism. The guardian. Retreived from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/07/bali-tourism-threatens-natural-beauty.