Abstract:
I will be looking at the life of Queen Lili'uokalani of Hawaii, and how it intersected with United States imperialism, colonialism, racism, sexism and corporatism. I will examine her life and the role she played in history in both critical and open-minded ways, using historical documents and any feminist/race theory texts available on the subject. Also, I hope to connect her life with the corporate interests that have driven United States foreign and domestic policy, focusing on the sugar companies with interests in Hawaii at the time. One of the problems I need to address before anything else is the possible bias among sources, with history being written by the winners it is entirely likely that the sources I find are already tainted with a slant I must identify and either acknowledge or work around before presenting my project using the information.
Keeping my social location in mind, I approach the issue of describing the terms ‘native’ and ‘women’ in loose, flexible terms that can not adequately be described as binary concepts. I recognize that ‘native’ can include people who grew up in the area, though mostly applying it to people who identify as indigenous. The term ‘woman’ is problematic to say the least, though I am unable to reconcile that with the hundreds if not thousands of indigenous languages that did not have a gender binary and so somewhat restricted in how I am able to talk about it. With those things in mind, I will do the best that I can in discussing Queen Lili’uokalani and her struggle against colonialism and U.S. imperialism. I approach this subject as a student, and any incorrect terms are said entirely due to ignorance and not malice.
Queen Lili’uokalani
Queen Lili'uokalani of Hawaii was the last queen before the forced annexation of Hawaii into the United States. As presented by the PBS program American Legacy in an episode called “Hawaii’s Last Queen,” her country was literally taken by force with her surrendering her crown at gunpoint on January 17, 1983. It was at that point that a provincial government led by white and wealthy sugar growers took control and petitioned the United States government for annexation (PBS).
This happened because Lili’uokalani’s brother, King Kalakuau, left Hawaii to travel the world. It was at this point there was a smallpox epidemic in Hawaii, brought there by Chinese laborers brought in on the ships to work in the sugarcane fields. Queen Lili’uokalani closed the harbors to protect the Hawaiian people, angering the sugar business owners interested in the bottom line. After her brother died in 1981, Queen Lili’uokalani began working on a new constitution for Hawaii that would return power to the people of her country, instead of the United States government. It was at this point, however, that the United States government interfered in the market harming Hawaii’s sugar stock and sending Hawaii close to economic ruin. With the wealthy sugar company owners concerned for their economic livelihood, they became certain the only way they could maintain their wealth was for Hawaii to annex to the United States. That is, of course, what happened. To say this would be a coincidence would be more than naïve and foolish; to say this is exactly what has happened probably hundreds of times throughout the history of the United States is probably an understatement.
The story of Queen Lili’uokalani is directly related to the history of the United States government fighting for the control over indigenous communities and societies. Indigenous women have dealt with much of this direct colonization, on the micro level of their own bodily colonization as well as that of their families and rest of societies. Queen Lili’uokalani was sent to exile for a time after she was forced to abdicate the throne, and spent the rest of her time exiled to the mainland of the United States of America. Not only did the United States government take away her birthright and title, they took physical control of her body and spirit by forcing her to leave her homeland for the rest of her days.
Queen Lili’uokalani tried to use her status and the power given her to help her people. Whether closing the harbor to prevent outside diseases from wreaking havoc in her country or working in secret to write a new constitution, the Queen worked within the system that was supposed to be under her control in order to effect positive change for her community. It was not until that status was forcibly taken from her that she was unable to work to enact change on behalf of her people.
Queen Lili’uokalani’s life is an important one to consider for the scholarly study of Native Women in Traditional and Contemporary Societies. It is her existence as the last queen of a country that was not only forcibly assimilated by the United States but adopted as its own that makes her such an important figure. As discussed by Andrea Smith in her book Conquest, sexual violence as a tool of genocide of a people has been something the indigenous populations of the world have been faced with since the start of colonization. While sexual violence was not used directly against Queen Lili’uokalani, it was used against her people as a way to possess their land and sovereignty. The role of Queen Lili’uokalani shifted after her country was forcibly taken from her, but she was not completely devoid of power. Much like the women discussed by Clara Sue Kidwell in the article “Indian Women as Cultural Mediators,” Queen Lili’uokalani tried to use her status to influence President McKinley and get her country back. While she was unable to do that, her role as intermediary between the two cultures can not be overlooked. The wishes of the sugar corporations could not be ignored, and so Queen Lili’uokalani was unable to make herself be heard.
All forms of violence were inflicted on the indigenous people of Hawaii, just like they were inflicted on the other indigenous peoples of North America. When diseases not found on Hawaii were brought there by the colonizing people, it became an opportunity to seize power utilizing racist and ethnocentric rhetoric. The colonizing peoples (missionaries, sugar plant company owners, etc.) set about painting the indigenous Hawaiian people as “unfit” to survive, and they used the outbreak of disease among the people as their reasoning. The reality that was portrayed to the rest of the United States that it was only “right” to take control of the land and its people; after all, it was for their own protection. RDK Herman writes about the fabrication of a leprosy “epidemic” that justified the forced segregation of much of the Hawaiian people, the separation of families that came along with it and the attempted destruction of a people using the idea that it was in “their best interest.”
The very direct role corporations played in the annexation of Hawaii is something that needs to be addressed. It was not the first time this has happened in the history of the United States of America, and most definitely not the last. In the past, there were the railroad companies and “Manifest Destiny”; currently there are the perceived reasons for recent foreign policy decisions made by the Bush administration. Examples such as these are when resources and corporate interests have played important parts in many parts of history of the United States. Hawaii belongs in the same category, where the interests of the people originally living there are completely disregarded in favor of corporate interests.
Analysis
My research questions were answered with the research I did; the role of corporations in the take-over of Hawaii as well as the significance of race in the colonizing of the land. I did not know about the “leprosy epidemic” that was fabricated justify imprisonment of native Hawaiians, though in all honesty it does not much surprise me when those kinds of events are hidden from the country’s collective memory. This tells me that the systems of power are still working to subjugate the indigenous peoples of Hawaii as well as the other indigenous groups around the “United” States of America, no matter how people want to spin it. This puts the non-indigenous people interested in the issues of colonization and empire in an interesting position; when we “know” about what has happened in history as opposed to really knowing it is easy to blow off our responsibilities. However, after taking this course and doing this research and analysis I can no longer sit idly by and watch as colonization and empire continue to run rampant without trying to check it, in whatever capacity I may have. Even if it is as little as standing up to somebody making an ethnocentric generalization about indigenous peoples, that is still something I find myself compelled to do. As far as this project goes, supporting the Hawaiian sovereignty movement would be an important step in helping to undo the damage that was done a little more than a century ago. Perhaps the “island life” will be some kind of chapter in my future; all I know is I am unable to dismiss what I have learned, and hopefully some sort of positive change will come of it.
Works Cited
"Hawaii's Last Queen." The American Experience. Nar. Anna Deavere Smith. PBS. 1997.
Herman, RDK. “Out of sight, out of mind, out of power: leprosy, race and colonization in Hawai’i.” Journal of Historical Geography. 27:3. 2001. (319-337).
Kidwell, Clara Sue. “Indian Women as Cultural Mediators.” Native Women’s History in Eastern North America before 1900. United States: University of Nebraska Press, 2007.
Smith, Andrea. Conquest. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2005.
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