Rochelle Midro Artist

“The Hawaiian Renaissance,” written by George Kanahele in 1979  http://kapalama.ksbe.edu/archives/pvsa/primary%202/79%20kanahele/kanahele.htm   George Kanehele gives a brief history of the Hawaiian Renaissance, some of its motivations, and some of its impacts.  He talks about how he has great hope for the Hawaiian Renaissance and all that it entails for the Hawaiian people;  but that at the same time it has brought about a great paradox in the form of reverse-racism. (p. 10)  Some Hawaiians have become extremely suspicious of outsiders, and foreigners, and many have chosen to exclude non-Hawaiians from any Hawaiian-related activity, purely because of their race. He says that even though some of these non-Hawaiians have become some of the most actively engaged culturally and spiritually connected “Hawaiian-at-heart” individuals, who have had key roles in the history of the Hawaiian Renaissance and the perpetuation of the Hawaiian culture; that sadly some...

I grew up in a town that was known at the time for having the highest concentration of Native Hawaiians with the lowest literacy rates in the state. We were told we weren't smart, we needed to read more, we were a bunch of  illiterate natives that could barely read, write, or speak well enough to be taken seriously.  I've learned now, that those notions couldn't have been farther from the truth. If literacy is defined as the ability to read and write, and having  competence or knowledge in a specified area, then who determines if we are literate? Who examines our levels of understanding, and how does this define who we are?  In my Pacific Island Studies course I took in the Spring of 2017, I read a poem called “The Pacific Written Tradition,” by Craig Santos Perez.  https://muse.jhu.edu/article/618437 He challenges notions of literacy and how it has affected Pacific Islanders specifically.  This poem  empowered me , inspired me, and reached me on...