Abstract
Many people would consider a Hawaiian vacation a dream come true. While its natural environment is beautiful and varied, it is Hawaii’s people and culture that fuel the collective imagination. The “aloha spirit” has been used as tourist bait for decades. The friendly, welcoming people of Hawaii have been used in movies and television to symbolize universal hospitality and acceptance, and to concretize the superiority of White, western culture to justify the ongoing colonization of kanaka maoli people. However, the successful commodification of traditional Hawaiian culture is also the greatest challenge to its existence. The creation and dissemination of the Hawaiian stereotype diminishes what was once a complex, vibrant way of life into a make-believe veneer that can be presented in a tourist pamphlet or digested over the course of a 90-minute hula show, along with a “dinner luau” of roast pork, macadamia-crusted chicken breast, taro dinner rolls, and pineapple cake. Visitors are led to believe that their ten-day Hawaiian vacation teaches them everything they there is to know about the First Nation civilization that populated the islands for centuries before the arrival of Western “discoverers”. This paper discusses how the monetization of Hawaii as a visitor destination, location for television and film storytelling and stand-in for more expensive, remote, or geopolitically dangerous locations benefits business, government entities, and affluent vacationers while disenfranchising kanaka maoli people and perpetuating inaccurate stereotypes about both indigenous and settler Hawaiians.
Presenters
Cheryl Crozier GarciaRetired, College of Business, Hawaii Pacific University, Hawaii, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Hawaii in Media, Kanaka Maoli, Native Hawaiians, Settler Hawaiians
