‘Ōiwi: a Native Hawaiian Journal as a Written Mo‘okū‘auhau of Resistance

Brandy Nālani McDougall, English

‘Ōiwi: A Native Hawaiian Journal was first published by the independent Kuleana ‘Ōiwi Press in 1998.  The inaugural issue, “He oia mau nō kākou,” or “We go on,” became the first collection Native Hawaiian mana‘o and hana no‘eau, produced and edited by  Native Hawaiians, making it a self-defining publication.  

    Very little literary or political criticism has explored the strong aesthetic and cultural resistance the journal represents, as well as its political implications.  While several major newspapers in Hawai‘i, all publications which regularly print literary reviews, covered the launching of each of the journal’s three volumes, interestingly enough, very little was devoted to the mana‘o of  Native Hawaiians within the journal, and none chose to review the journal as a literary collection. To date, no formal literary review of ‘Ōiwi exists. 

    This paper asserts that this inattention is directly related to the colonial context of Hawai‘i.  I begin by examining how each of ‘Ōiwi’s volumes were received and portrayed in Hawai‘i newspapers, borrowing largely from Terry Goldie’s concept of indigenization, Mason Durie’s summary of the Conference of Indigenous Art and Heritage and the Politics of Identity held in Aotearoa (2002), and Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony as force and consent.  I then look at the historical role writing has played in Hawaiian resistance, the colonial response to silence, and how the journal was created, before offering my own analysis of the Native Hawaiian literature and art within ‘Ōiwi, and how the creative work asserts and continues a mo‘okū‘auhau of resistance.