The Political Legacy of US Occupation on "Native Hawaiian" Identity.

• In Event: Indigineity, Nativity and Boundaries of Exclusion

Abstract

In 1896 the Hawaiian language was officially banned from use in schools and government. It wasn't until 1978 that the Hawaiian language was reincorporated back into official use, becoming the second official language of Hawaiʻi. In 1984, the Hawaiʻi State Legislature enacted the Native Hawaiian Education Act, which allocated resources to promote Hawaiian language and culture. These pivotal state policies ushered in a new social and political context where the Hawaiian language and culture was once again officially recognized. This paper explores the implications of these policies on Hawaiian identity. The objective of this study is to examine how different age cohorts, specifically Gen Y (aka "millennials"; ages 26-40) and Gen Z (ages 5-25), conceptualize and express their identity. This paper examines social exclusion theory and how exclusionary policies impacted Hawaiian self-identification over time. The key question this paper investigates is: Are there cohort effects given a respondent's political socialization as measured through Hawaiian language and cultural policies enacted in Hawaiʻi over time? This paper uses data from the 2019 Native Hawaiian Survey, the largest survey to date on Hawaiian identity. The survey contains over 1,000 respondents spanning the islands of Oʻahu, Maui, Hawaiʻi Island, and Kauaʻi. The survey was fielded between August 2019-December 2019. Respondents were recruited in person, through social media, email, and snowball sampling. Additionally, this survey created and tested a new instrument to measure Hawaiian identity.. Hawaiians are often lumped within the larger umbrella of Asian American Pacific Islanders on national surveys, making them an often overlooked footnote in these national datasets. This paper and project advance the theoretical and empirical work on understanding the lived experienced and self-identification of aboriginal/indigenous Hawaiians.

Author

• Ngoc Phan, Hawaii Pacific University