Indigenous Pacifics. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2019. xiv, 141 pp. US$78.00, cloth. ISBN 978-0-8248-7339-4.
The Past before Us presents an inspiring window into Native Hawaiian ontology and methodologies, both critiquing Western academic research methodologies and offering practical alternatives drawn from the Hawaiian context. Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu has artfully assembled pieces from eleven Native Hawaiian scholars and practitioners, a collective “committed to creating social, political, and epistemological change” (128). Their multi-disciplinary explorations of Native research methodologies trace a path through taro fields, Native Hawaiian chants, proverbs, philosophy, lei making, wayfinding, and diaspora. Each chapter explores different aspects and applications of mo‘okū’auhau, or the Native Hawaiian concept and practice of a deep and continuous social, spiritual, and genealogical connection to each other and all things across time. The result is a rich and multifaceted vision of sustainability as a form of continuity rooted in Native Hawaiian history and ontology.
One of the most refreshing things about the book is its willingness to be a work of activism. As Wilson-Hokowhitu and Manulani Aluli Meyer note in the introduction, it is meant to “capture the function of Indigenous, Pacific, and Kanaka ‘Ōiwi (Native Hawaiian) scholarship and to be a vehicle for expanding consciousness” (4). Each of the contributors realizes this goal in their own way, through the myriad possibilities of mo‘okū‘auhau and its central themes of connectivity, continuity, and succession.
In chapter 1, Kū Kahakalau explores Native Hawaiian proverbs as a touchstone for shared values, ontology, and a methodological approach she calls Ma‘awe Pono. She details the process of Ma‘awe Pono through eight phases of research that both critique Western methodologies and offer a promising alternative, albeit one that conforms to a specific “Hawaiian framework and Hawaiian paradigms” (26). Mehana Blaich Vaughan’s subsequent contribution presents a wonderful illustration of this framework by introducing us to her grandmother, Tūtū, and Native Hawaiian lei making (chapter 2). As she walks through lei making with Tūtū, Vaughan gracefully demonstrates how this work actually enacts basic principles fundamental to respectful Indigenous research.
Next, Kalei Nu‘uhiwa delves into how a paradigm known as Papakū Makawalu can be used to guide research (chapter 3). Based on a genealogical creation chant, the methodology of Papakū Makawalu captures the timelessness, multivocality, and infinite potential of orally transmitted knowledge and offers one way for today’s Hawaiians to reconnect with their past through ancient wisdom. In chapter 4, Ku‘ualoha Ho‘omanawanui builds on the themes of cyclical time, connection, and multiple perspectives by looking at mo‘okū‘auhau as a bridge between “orature and literature” (53). Emphasizing how this “critical, culturally-based Indigenous methodology” (51) is a form of kinship that is being rediscovered, rather than invented, she presents mo‘okū‘auhau’s “expansive web” (64) of connections as a possible pan-Indigenous methodology that could help heal communities across the globe. ‘Umi Perkins then brings mo‘okū‘auhau into conversation with the genealogical methods of Nietzsche and Foucault (chapter 5). Her fascinating discussion of continuity and rupture, colonialism, power, and the troubling tensions between science and intuition illustrate how mo‘okū‘auhau, firmly rooted in mana (spiritual power), is a useful and necessary combination of both theory and empiricism, objectivity, and subjectivity. Hōkūlani Aikau brings this dynamic quality back into the context of Native Hawaiian practice through exploring shared responsibilities to each other, the environment, and all things (kuleana) (chapter 6). Beautifully told through her own experience as an academic “outsider” brought in to work on restoring taro fields with a local community on O‘ahu, Aikau shows how the practice of mo’okū’auhau can trouble false binaries like Native/non-Native and help to foster action, culturally respectful relationships, and kuleana regardless of a person’s background.
David Chang builds upon the Perkins and Aikau chapters by looking at how mo‘okū‘auhau can be mobilized as a “decolonial practice” (98) that engages directly with settler colonialism, power, and mana (chapter 7). By explaining how this methodology rejects such classic Western categories as the atomized individual, the bounded nation-state, and linear, progressive time, he illustrates its potential political power. Similar connections across time and space feature in Lisa Kahaleole Hall’s exploration of today’s Hawaiian diaspora (chapter 8). Hall shows how mo‘okū‘auhau, as an active, contingent web of relations, might serve as a connecting force to counteract such divisive categories as “blood” and “race” (115).
In the final chapter, Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu emphasizes the active, guiding role of the Native Hawaiian ancestors as a source of both connectivity and continuity. Drawing upon the inspirational story of Hōkūle‘a, the Polynesian canoe that circled the globe using ancient wayfinding, she suggests using mo‘okū’auhau as a path forward into a sustainable future and a method for helping Native Hawaiians to see themselves as both modern and Indigenous—a challenge shared by all Indigenous peoples.
One weakness of the book is the strict specificity of mo‘okū’auhau, which is deeply embedded in Hawaiian language and ontology. A broader scope is suggested by several contributors, and briefly explored by Ho‘omanawanui and Hall, but mo‘okū’auhau’s potential for engagement beyond Hawai‘i still appears limited. The prevalent use of Hawaiian, though enriching, reinforces this narrow focus and might make the book less accessible to a broad readership. Still, the volume has enormous potential for sparking innovative action beyond Hawai‘i. For example, the Marquesan concept of a‘itua, similar to mo‘okū‘auhau, evokes both genealogy and continuity. Further investigations of Oceania would likely reveal more such links and opportunities.
This book is a unique and valuable addition to the growing body of work by Indigenous scholars on Native methodologies and ways of knowing, and a welcome complement to the work of Western phenomenologists like Keith Basso and Tim Ingold. Its detailed attention to practice and engagement also makes it potentially useful for not just academic researchers, but for practitioners working in Hawai‘i and with Indigenous communities elsewhere. I greatly enjoyed reading The Past before Us, and strongly recommend it to anyone interested in Hawai‘i, Indigenous peoples, research methods and engagement, philosophy, decolonization, or genealogy.
Emily C. Donaldson
Saint Michael’s College, Colchester