Hale Mua: (En)gendering Hawaiian men

Abstract

This dissertation examines the intersection of gender and culture in the process of identity formation among Kanaka 'Oiwi Maoli (Indigenous Hawaiian) men in the Hale Mua O Maui. Throughout the neocolonial Pacific, indigenous Oceanic men have engaged in gender practices that historically have had widely different consequences for their positions of power or marginality; the cases of Hawai'i and Aotearoa/New Zealand offer important insights into the gendered dynamics of colonialism, decolonization, and reclamation. Focusing in on a deeper history of colonization and revitalization at Pu'ukohola heiau (Kawaihae, Hawai'i), I highlight the ways in which the birth of a newly gendered tradition of bravery and warriorhood in Na Koa (The Courageous Ones) led to a reconsideration of men's roles in different sectors of the Hawaiian community. One outcome was the formation of the Hale Mua, or the "Men's House," on the island of Maui. Against the legacy of American colonialism and its concomitant discourses of death, disappearance, feminization, and domestication, the Hale Mua has endeavored to build strong, culturally grounded men that will take up their kuleana (rights and responsibilities) as members of their 'ohana (families) and the larger lahui (nation). In particular, I examine the role of discursive and embodied practices of ritual, performance, and narrative in the transformation, (re)definition, and enactment of their subjectivities as Hawaiian men. The processes through which the members of the group come to define, know, and perform these kuleana articulate with the larger projects of cultural revitalization, moral regeneration, spiritual/bodily healing, national reclamation, and the uncertain and ambiguous project of mental and political decolonization. Likewise, the very writing of this dissertation has fore-grounded both the possibilities and problematics of conducting indigenous anthropology and research at home.