Since I don't have any requests from authors, editors or publicists at the moment, I decided to review a memoir with the title of Local by an NBC editor who is part Native Hawaiian. Her name is Jessica Machado which clearly isn't a Native Hawaiian name. I selected her book as my December Amazon First Read which I downloaded for free, and finished on January 30. I love its colorful cover.
Native Hawaiians call themselves Kanaka. They are distinguished from those who either are settlers in Hawaii from the U.S. mainland, or those who are descended from these settlers. Machado refers to settlers as locals. Yet I imagine her own self-identification is complex due to her mixed heritage.
When
Machado was called "Haole",which is the Hawaiian term for settlers from
the U.S. mainland, she was upset. Yet it occurred to me that Machado's
heritage is primarily Haole. Her mother was 100% Haole from
Shreveport, Louisiana. Machado learned to speak with her mother's Southern accent. Her father was part Kanaka and part Portuguese. Yet his Kanaka ancestry wasn't on his birth certificate. Her part-Kanaka heritage wasn't on his daughter's birth certificate either. She still identifies as part-Kanaka.
The overwhelming majority of the content of this book doesn't deal with either politics or Hawaiian culture. Actually, 95% of this book didn't interest me. As a result of Local 's emphasis on personal events , I wasn't aware that Machado is currently an
editor at NBC News until I saw her profile on Goodreads after I had
finished reading the book.
Local has inspired me to read further about Kanaka culture. I have found books dealing with Kanaka philosophy that are available in libraries. I would like to investigate their approaches.
I learned from this book that the word "Aloha" isn't just a greeting. It's a concept that is found in all Polynesian languages. See the Wikipedia article on Aloha here.
Another significant Hawaiian concept is "Ohana". Machado doesn't really define Ohana. She thinks of it as a feeling that's associated with family. There are many Ohana graphics celebrating Ohana and family on the internet. Here's one I particularly liked.
I also liked the extended family and sense of community definition of Ohana that I found at Dictionary.com here.
When Machado went to London for her sophomore year of college, she called her father saying she felt alone. Her father told her that she needed to get used to it. "All you have in life is yourself." She felt that was anti-Ohana, but she thought it was true. (I think that someone's attitude about attachment or alienation is a choice, and that it's not a permanent one. I've vacillated between feeling contentedly immersed in a community and feeling totally apart from community.)
Machado does discuss Hawaii's past and how it became what it is today. A significant event in Hawaiian history was King Kalakaua being forced to sign a document known as The Bayonet Constitution on July 6, 1887. The Bayonet Constitution gave the King less power and restricted the rights of Kanaka voters.
There is a Hawaiian sovereignty movement. Machado briefly discusses it and Kay Trask, a prominent activist in that movement. I read a brief memorial account of Trask's life after she passed away in 2021 here. Machado asked her father what he thought about Hawaiian sovereignty. He said that it was too late for that. I don't think it is too late. Hawaiians can still choose to unite behind the sovereignty movement. They can have sovereignty rallies. They can hold an election. An island choosing sovereignty after having been colonized hasn't always worked out well (e.g. Haiti), but I think the Hawaiian traditions of Aloha and Ohana are advantages that could potentially lead to a peaceful and prosperous future for a sovereign Hawaii. Of course, the future of Hawaii should be up to the majority of Hawaiians.
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