JOIN US FOR AN EVENING WITH THE AUTHOR OF
HAWAIIAN BLOOD: COLONIALISM AND THE POLITICS OF SOVEREIGNTY AND INDIGENEITY
In the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1921, the U.S. Congress defined “native Hawaiians” as those people “with at least one-half blood quantum of individuals inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands prior to 1778.” This “blood logic” has since become an entrenched part of the legal system in Hawai’i.
Hawaiian Blood is the first comprehensive history and analysis of this federal law that equates Hawaiian cultural identity with a quantifiable amount of blood. J. Kehaulani Kauanui explains how blood quantum classification emerged as a way to undermine Hawaiian sovereignty. Kauanui provides an impassioned assessment of how the arbitrary correlation of ancestry and race imposed by the U.S. government on the indigenous people of Hawai‘i has had far-reaching legal and cultural effects.
October 23rd, 2009
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Native Books / Na Mea Hawai‘i
Ward Warehouse (Ewa end, under the Old Spaghetti Factory)
1050 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 1000, Honolulu, HI 96814
Phone (O‘ahu): (808) 597-8967
Toll-free (Neighbor Islands): 800-887-7751
Fax: (808) 596-7742
J. Kehaulani Kauanui is an associate professor of anthropology and American studies at Wesleyan University. Currently, she is working on her second book titled, Thy Kingdom Come? Gender & Sexuality in Hawaiian Nationalist Politics–a critical study on gender and sexual politics vis-à-vis state-centered Hawaiian nationalism and the disavowal of Hawaiian indigeneity. Kehaulani was part of the founding steering committee for the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, established in 2008, and is currently a council member serving a three year term. She is the producer and host of a public affairs radio program, “Indigenous Politics: From Native New England and Beyond,” on WESU that is syndicated on five other stations through the Pacifica-radio network.
Leave a Reply