Nā holokahiki i ka ulu lāʻau o kai: Emergent Kanaka Hawaiʻi whalers of the nineteenth-century

Abstract

After the introduction of whaling, ʻō koholā, to Hawaiʻi in 1819, the labor of nativeHawaiian seamen were quickly commodified and, by the mid-1820s, had become Hawaiʻi’s primary export as the sandalwood trade declined. The current understanding of the whaling industry in Hawaiʻi during the 1800s lacks depth, particularly when discussing native Hawaiians and the experiences they had in this industry. To unravel the complexities of the Kanaka whaler, this thesis examines the existing moʻolelo of Kānaka and koholā, those that pre-date the whaling industry entering Hawaiian waters. These moʻolelo present the symbiotic relationship Kānaka have with koholā, a relationship that collapses in the inauguration of the whaling industry, in which the Kānaka becomes the predator and koholā their prey; in this hunt, ʻō koholā, a significant sector of Hawaiʻi’s early workforce, accommodated capitalism and compromised what we today consider Kanaka self-identity. This thesis follows the introduction of the whaling industry in Hawaiʻi: from the rapid recruitment of Kānaka onto international pelagic vessels through the laws that the Hawaiian Kingdom put into place to protect its subjects. The focus of this research is to recognize and analyze the moʻolelo and voices of these Kānaka throughout the whaling industry in the 19th century in order to highlight the huge but largely invisible effect Kanaka whalers and whaling had in Hawaiʻi and abroad. This presentation intervenes into current surface-level histories that erase Kānaka from being the most skilled sailors who propelled the industry, instead of casting them as nameless and faceless laborers under distinguished white captains.