He Lei Ho'oheno no na Kau a Kau: Language, Performance and Form in Hawaiian Poetry (original) (raw)

2005, The Contemporary Pacific

Hawaiian poetry is the poetry produced by Känaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians), the indigenous inhabitants genealogically connected to the archipelago known to the world as Hawai'i. 1 It is not regional in nature, that is, it is not simply the product of anyone who claims Hawai'i as home. Nor is it thematic; it is not just any poem about Hawai'i. Since European contact in 1778, differing cultural values have informed Hawaiian poetry. Surprisingly little attention has been given to the ways in which Hawaiian poetry has been categorized and studied from either haole (western) or maoli (indigenous) perspectives. This article is an examination of contemporary Hawaiian poetry, with special attention to issues of language, performance, and form. I focus on contemporary Hawaiian poetry written, recorded, and published over the past twenty years by Kanaka Maoli poets, whether composed in English, Hawaiian, Hawai'i Creole English (hce), or combinations of these languages. 2 The purpose of this analysis is to demonstrate the different strands of cultural and linguistic influence that have helped to shape the development of this dynamic genre of contemporary Hawaiian artistic expression. Because of the diversity of influences on contemporary Hawaiian poetry, I suggest that a lei is an appropriate metaphor for it. The development of Hawaiian verbal arts, orature, and literatureincluding Hawaiian poetry-can be defined in many ways. For example, in the 1970s, Hawaiian language scholar Rubellite Kawena Johnson established different periods and categories for Hawaiian verbal and written arts (see Johnson 2001). In 1980, English professor Leialoha Apo Perkins contextualized the development of Hawaiian literature as a Pacific-linked