Kara Hisatake

Authenticity has long been a question regarding literature of and about Hawai’i. When putting together a course or a reading list, do you include white authors like Jack London, the local Asian writers, and writers who have moved away? Two recent publications, Hula (2023) by Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes, and Local (2022) by Jessica Machado, have raised questions about authenticity in Hawai’i literature. While Hula is a novel and Local is a memoir, both are about what it means to be Hawaiian, or how to belong to a place, by authors who dive deep into Hawaiian history and who do not currently live in Hawai’i. While these are only two, another one to mention would be Sharks in the Time of Saviors.

Note: See my Goodreads review for Hula and Local and Sharks in the Time of Saviors.

On the one hand, one of Hula‘s protagonists is a white girl adopted by a Hawaiian family, by a woman who follows hanai practices from mo’olelo, and who grows up thinking that she is, in fact, Hawaiian until she finds out her own origin story.

On the other hand, Local centers on Machado, who is Hawaiian-Portuguese-white and does not learn or know about her Hawaiian heritage until she moves away from the islands, well into her adulthood. The memoir itself ends up centering on her relationship with her mother. Machado does not do the “(stereo)typically” local things, in part because she is so much raised by her white mother from the South.

While there are many writers who have moved away from Hawai’i and retain a good sense of the place and voice–Joe Balaz is one of them (he is in Ohio)–these stick out to me because the authors and the books themselves are so concerned about what it means to belong to a place. This is a question that is especially pertinent when, at this point in time and only recently, there are more Hawaiians living outside of Hawai’i than in the islands.

Here are the questions I ask:

+ What does it mean to belong to Hawai’i, and what does that look like?

+ How do you perpetuate and represent Hawaiian culture, authentically?

+ Why does it matter who belongs?

+ Do you have to “prove” your Hawaiianness, or localness? How? Do these authors pass the test? What are these authors’ credentials in writing about this, and do you buy it?

+ What is inauthentic, or stereotypical?

+ Can anyone write about a place or a culture? Can you write about being Hawaiian and do you have to prove your Hawaiian blood to do so?

+ What does being Hawaiian look like today?

+ Who is the audience for the book and how would/do different audiences react (inside versus outside)?

Note: Photo hilariously generated by Gemini AI.