This course explores the symbolic myths of Hawai'i and Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) in contrast to material realities relating to colonialism, land, nation, gender, race, rank, class, self-determination, and contests over indigenous and Western sovereignty. The course covers the pre-colonial period, examines Captain Cook's ventures in the Hawaiian Islands, the founding of the Hawaiian Kingdom, constitutional development of the Hawaiian Nation, the Kamehameha Dynasty, Calvinist missionization, the history of written literacy, the privatization of Hawaiian land use, gender transformations, the colonial regulation of sexuality, plantation labor, Kalakaua's governance, the reign of Queen Lili'uokalani, and the US-backed overthrow of the monarchy. From the US takeover, the class examines the unilateral annexation and 20th-century colonial policy to 1959 statehood with an emphasis on indigenous self-determination, decolonization, and indigenous nationalism through the contemporary period in relation to both US federal policy and international law with a focus on land struggles. |