Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:06:57.941Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nahenahe (Soft, Sweet, Melodious): Sounding Out Native Hawaiian Self-Determination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2020

KEVIN FELLEZS
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this essay, I explore the ways in which kī hō‘alu (Hawaiian slack key guitarists) articulated Native Hawaiian aspirations for self-determination and reterritorialization during the Second Hawaiian Renaissance. I argue that Hawaiian music speaks to a liberatory politics that is embedded within an aesthetic of nahenahe (soft, sweet, melodious). Nahenahe invests slack key guitarists with the mana (power, authority) to invoke a Native Hawaiian perspective that empowers and sustains Kanaka Maoli (native Hawaiian) efforts for self-determination and political autonomy. The connections between music and political activism were highlighted and strengthened throughout the period. Indeed, although numerous political groups organized throughout the period, providing the modern foundations to the struggles for sovereignty today, at the forefront of it all were the musicians.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 13 , Special Issue 4: Music, Indigeneity, and Colonialism in the Americas , November 2019 , pp. 411 - 435
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Music 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Akamine, Eldon. “A Hawaiian Music Interview with Kahauanu Lake.” Ha‘ilono Mele 5, no. 5 (May 1979): 1–4.Google Scholar
Akamine, Eldon. “Moon Bridges Gap: An Interview with Peter Moon, Part I.” Ha‘ilono Mele 3, no. 2 (February 1977): 4–7.Google Scholar
Akamine, Eldon. “Music Renaissance Brings New Era of Singer-Songwriter.” Ha‘ilono Mele 4, no. 7 (July 1978): 4–5.Google Scholar
Attali, Jacques. Noise: The Political Economy of Music. Translated by Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Blaisdell, Kekuni. “Historical and Cultural Aspects of Native Hawaiian Health.” In Pacific Diaspora: Island Peoples in the United States and Across the Pacific, edited by Spickard, Paul, Rondilla, Joanne L., and Wright, Debbie Hippolite, 279–85. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Blaisdell, Kekuni, Minton, Nālani, and Hasager, Ulla. “Ka Ho‘okolokolonui Kanaka Maoli, 1993: The Peoples’ International Tribunal, Hawai‘i.” In A Nation Rising: Hawaiian Movements for Life, Land, and Sovereignty, edited by Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua, Noelani, Hussey, Ikaika, and Wright, Erin Kahunawaika‘ala. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Charlot, John. Classical Hawaiian Education: Generations of Hawaiian Culture. Lā‘ie, Hawai‘i: The Pacific Institute, Brigham Young University–Hawai‘i Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Donaghy, Joseph Keola. “Hawaiian Slack Key Instruction: Moving Forward By Looking Back.” Hūlili: Multidisciplinary Research on Hawaiian Well-Being 8 (2012): 71–96.Google Scholar
Eyerman, Ron and Jamison, Andrew. Music and Social Movements: Mobilizing Traditions in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fellezs, Kevin. “Playing Guitar, Performing Hawaiian.” Institute for Studies in American Music Newsletter 36, no. 2 (Spring 2007): 4–5, 12.Google Scholar
Fox, Aaron A.Real Country: Music and Language in Working-Class Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garrett, Charles Hiroshi. Struggling to Define a Nation: American Music and the Twentieth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg-Hiller, Jonathan, and Silva, Noenoe K.. “Sharks and Pigs: Animating Hawaiian Sovereignty against the Anthropological Machine.” South Atlantic Quarterly 110, no. 2 (April 2011): 429–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua, Noelani. “Hawai‘i: An Occupied Country.” Harvard International Review 35, no. 3 (Winter 2014): 58–62.Google Scholar
Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua, Noelani. “Kuleana Lāhui: Collective Responsibility for Hawaiian Nationhood in Activists’ Praxis.” Affinities: A Journal of Radical Theory, Culture, and Action 5, no. 1 (2011): 130–63.Google Scholar
Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua, Noelani. “Protectors of the Future, Not Protestors of the Past: Indigenous Pacific Activism and Mauna a Wākea.” South Atlantic Quarterly 116, no. 1 (January 2017): 184–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua, Noelani. The Seeds We Planted: Portraits of a Native Hawaiian Charter School. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua, Noelani, Hussey, Ikaika, and Erin Kahunawaika‘ala, Wright, eds., A Nation Rising: Hawaiian Movements for Life, Land, and Sovereignty. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houston, James D. and Kamae, Eddie. Hawaiian Son: The Life and Music of Eddie Kamae. Honolulu: ‘Ai Pōhaku Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Kaleihuia, William K. “He Pue Kanaka Hawaii Oiaio, Aole Nae E Hiki Ke Himeni I Ka Himeni Hawaii.” Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, June 25, 1920.Google Scholar
Kame‘eleihiwa, Lilikalā.Native Land and Foreign Desires: Pehea Lā E Pono Ai? Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Kame‘eleihiwa, Lilikalā. “Preface: The Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement.” In Islands in Captivity: The International Tribunal on the Rights of Indigenous Hawaiians, edited by Churchill, Ward and Venne, Sharon H.; Hawaiian language editor, Lilikalā Kame‘eleihiwa, xvii–xxvii. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Kanahele, George S. “Hapa Haole Songs.” In Hawaiian Music and Musicians: An Encyclopedic History. Rev. ed. Edited by Kanahele, George S.. Revised and updated by John Berger, 244–46. Honolulu: Mutual Publishing, 2012.Google Scholar
Kanahele, George S. “The Hawaiian Renaissance (May 1979),” http://kapalama.ksbe.edu/archives/pvsa/primary%202/79%20kanahele/kanahele.htm.Google Scholar
Kirch, Patrick V.Shark Going Inland Is My Chief: The Island Civilization of Ancient Hawai‘i. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Lewis, George H. “Da Kine Sounds: The Function of Music as Social Protest in the New Hawaiian Renaissance.” American Music 2, no. 2 (1984): 38–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, George H. “The Role of Music in Popular Social Movements: A Theory and Case Study of the Island State of Hawaii, USA.” International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music 16, no. 2 (1985): 153–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, George H. “Storm Blowing from Paradise: Social Protest and Oppositional Ideology in Popular Hawaiian Music.” Popular Music 10, no. 1 (January 1991): 53–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, George H. “Style in Revolt Music, Social Protest, and the Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance.” International Social Science Review 62, no. 4 (Fall 1987): 168–77.Google Scholar
MacKenzie, Melody Kapilialoha, Serrano, Susan K., and Kaulukukui, Koalani Laura. “Environmental Justice for Indigenous Hawaiians: Reclaiming Land and Resources.” Natural Resources and Environment 21, no. 3 (Winter 2007): 37–42, 79.Google Scholar
McGregor, Davianna Pōmaika‘i. Nā Kua‘āina: Living Hawaiian Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Meller, Norman, and Lee, Ann Feder. “Hawaiian Sovereignty.” Publius: The Journal of Federalism 27, no. 2 (1997): 167–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milner, Neal. “Home, Homelessness, and Homeland in the Kalama Valley: Re-Imagining a Hawaiian Nation Through a Property Dispute.” Hawaiian Journal of History 40 (2006): 149–76.Google Scholar
Moore, Allan. “A Hermeneutics of Protest Music.” In The Routledge History of Social Protest in Popular Music, edited by Friedman, Jonathan C., 387–99. New York: Routledge, 2013.Google Scholar
Morales, Rodney, ed. Ho‘iho‘i Hou: A Tribute to George Helm and Kimo Mitchell. Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Nordyke, Eleanor C., and Noyes, Martha H.. “‘Kaulana Nā Pua’: A Voice for Sovereignty.” The Hawaiian Journal of History 27 (1993): 27–42.Google Scholar
Pukui, Mary Kawena. ‘Olelo No‘eau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Sai, David Keanu. “American Occupation of the Hawaiian State: A Century Unchecked.” Hawaiian Journal of Law and Politics 1 (2004): 46–81.Google Scholar
Sai, David Keanu. “A Slippery Path towards Hawaiian Indigeneity: An Analysis and Comparison between Hawaiian State Sovereignty and Hawaiian Indigeneity and its Use and Practice in Hawai‘i Today.” Journal of Law and Social Challenges 10 (Fall 2008): 68–133.Google Scholar
Shank, Barry. The Political Force of Musical Beauty. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silva, Noenoe K.Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stillman, Amy Ku‘uleialoha. “‘Aloha Aina’: New Perspectives on ‘Kaulana Nā Pua.’” Hawaiian Journal of History 33 (1999): 83–99.Google Scholar
Suisman, David. Selling Sounds: The Commercial Revolution in American Music. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tatar, Betty (Elizabeth). “Questions and Answers.” Ha‘ilono Mele 3, no. 2 (February 1977): 7.Google Scholar
Trask, Haunani-Kay. “The Birth of the Modern Hawaiian Movement: Kalama Valley, O‘ahu.” Hawaiian Journal of History 21 (1987): 126–53.Google Scholar
Troutman, John W.Kīkā Kila: How the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed the Sound of Modern Music. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, Kimo. “George Helm and the ‘Language—Pain Revolution.’” Ha‘ilono Mele 2, no. 6 (June 1976): 2–3.Google Scholar
Wood, Houston. Displacing Natives: The Rhetorical Production of Hawai‘i. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999.Google Scholar
Beamer, Keola. Mauna Kea: White Mountain Journal, Dancing Cat 08022-38011-2, 1997, compact disc.Google Scholar
Beamer, Keola. Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar in the Real Old Style, Music of Polynesia MOP 22000, 1972, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Chillingworth, Sonny. Waimea Cowboy, Lehua SL 2003, 1972 [1964], 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Chillingworth, Sonny. Sonny Chillingworth, Makaha MS 2014, 1967, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Helm, George. The Music of George Helm, Gold Coin GC 1001, 1972, 331/3 rpm.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helm, George. The Music of George Helm, True Hawaiian, Vol. 2, Gold Coin GC 1002, 1972, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Kamae, Eddie, dir. The History of the Sons of Hawaii. 2004; Honolulu: Hawaiian Legacy Foundation, 2004. DVD.Google Scholar
Kotani, Ozzie. To Honor A Queen (E Ho‘ohiwahiwa I Ka Mo‘i Wahine), Dancing Cat 08022-38018-2, 2002, compact disc.Google Scholar
Kwan, Leonard. Slack Key: The Old Way, Tradewinds TS 1128, 1960, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Kwan, Leonard, and Kane, Raymond. Slack Key in Stereo, Tradewinds TS 106, 1961, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Pahinui, Gabby, and Isaacs, Leland “Atta”. Two Slack Key Guitars, Tradewinds TS 1124, 1969, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Payne, Alexander, dir. The Descendants. 2011; Los Angeles: Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2011.Google Scholar
Sons of Hawaii. Gabby Pahinui and the Sons of Hawaii, Hula H 503, 1960, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Sons of Hawaii. The Folk Music of Hawaii, Panini KN 1001, 1971, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Sons of Hawaii. This is Eddie Kamae and the Sons of Hawaii, Hula H 513, 1966, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Sunday Manoa. 3, Panini PS 1005, 1973, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Sunday Manoa. Cracked Seed, Panini PS 1003, 1972, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Sunday Manoa. Guava Jam, Hula HS 543, 1969, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Sunday Manoa. Meet Palani Vaughan and the Sunday Manoa, Hula HS 524, 1967, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Vaughan, Palani. Ia‘oe E Ka Lā, Nakāhili Productions NP 100, 1973, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Yasso, Ken, producer. Kaho‘olawe Aloha ‘Āina—George J. Helm. Hawai‘i: Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana Productions, 1977. Film, 26 min.Google Scholar
Beamer, Keola. Mauna Kea: White Mountain Journal, Dancing Cat 08022-38011-2, 1997, compact disc.Google Scholar
Beamer, Keola. Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar in the Real Old Style, Music of Polynesia MOP 22000, 1972, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Chillingworth, Sonny. Waimea Cowboy, Lehua SL 2003, 1972 [1964], 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Chillingworth, Sonny. Sonny Chillingworth, Makaha MS 2014, 1967, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Helm, George. The Music of George Helm, Gold Coin GC 1001, 1972, 331/3 rpm.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helm, George. The Music of George Helm, True Hawaiian, Vol. 2, Gold Coin GC 1002, 1972, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Kamae, Eddie, dir. The History of the Sons of Hawaii. 2004; Honolulu: Hawaiian Legacy Foundation, 2004. DVD.Google Scholar
Kotani, Ozzie. To Honor A Queen (E Ho‘ohiwahiwa I Ka Mo‘i Wahine), Dancing Cat 08022-38018-2, 2002, compact disc.Google Scholar
Kwan, Leonard. Slack Key: The Old Way, Tradewinds TS 1128, 1960, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Kwan, Leonard, and Kane, Raymond. Slack Key in Stereo, Tradewinds TS 106, 1961, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Pahinui, Gabby, and Isaacs, Leland “Atta”. Two Slack Key Guitars, Tradewinds TS 1124, 1969, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Payne, Alexander, dir. The Descendants. 2011; Los Angeles: Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2011.Google Scholar
Sons of Hawaii. Gabby Pahinui and the Sons of Hawaii, Hula H 503, 1960, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Sons of Hawaii. The Folk Music of Hawaii, Panini KN 1001, 1971, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Sons of Hawaii. This is Eddie Kamae and the Sons of Hawaii, Hula H 513, 1966, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Sunday Manoa. 3, Panini PS 1005, 1973, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Sunday Manoa. Cracked Seed, Panini PS 1003, 1972, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Sunday Manoa. Guava Jam, Hula HS 543, 1969, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Sunday Manoa. Meet Palani Vaughan and the Sunday Manoa, Hula HS 524, 1967, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Vaughan, Palani. Ia‘oe E Ka Lā, Nakāhili Productions NP 100, 1973, 331/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Yasso, Ken, producer. Kaho‘olawe Aloha ‘Āina—George J. Helm. Hawai‘i: Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana Productions, 1977. Film, 26 min.Google Scholar