Representation of Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian) Culture: A
case of Hula Dance
Lala Hajibayova
Kent State University
[email protected]
Wayne Buente
University of Hawai’i at Manoa
[email protected]
Luz Quiroga
University of Hawai’i at Manoa
[email protected]
Shanye Valeho-Novikoff
University of Hawai’i at Manoa
[email protected]
ABSTRACT
This paper explores representation of Kanaka Maoli
(Hawaiian) Hula Dance representation in traditional
systems of representation and organization. The paper
found baises and diasportization of representation of
Hawaiian Culture. Study emphasizes the need to recognize
the “inherent beauty in how and why Indigenous people
express and fulfill their desire to learn, preserve, organize,
and share knowledge” (Metoyer & Doyle, 2015, p. 475) and
advocates a decolonizing methodology to promote
alternative
information
structures
in
Indigenous
communities.
Keywords
Kanaka Maoli, Hawaii, Hawaiian Hula Dance.
KANAKA MAOLI (HAWAIIAN) HULA DANCE
Hawai’i is considered synonymous with paradise for its
pristine and beautiful nature, its unique culture and
hospitality, and the love or aloha of the Kanaka Maoli
(Hawaiian) people. Throughout more than a century of the
United States occupation, Hawai’i has been personified
through the figure of a Hawaiian female dancer or Kanaka
Maoli hula dancer (Imada, 2012). In pre-contact Hawai’i
and up to the late nineteenth century, hula was a “highly
venerated, selective, and restricted form of religious and
political praxis” (Imada, 2012, p. 11). Hula dancers were
guardians of Kanaka Maoli historiography, cosmogony, and
{This is the space reserved for copyright notices.]
ASIST 2016, October 14-18, 2016, Copenhagen, Denmark.
[Author Retains Copyright. Insert personal or institutional
copyright notice here.]
genealogies, undergoing ritualized training to reproduce
and transmit knowledge for high-ranking chiefs (Imada,
2012).
Taking into consideration the complex cultural and political
connotations of Kanaka Maoli hula, the question is how the
complexity of representation of hula is reflected in systems
of representation and organization. In order to address this
broad question, this paper investigates a various systems of
representation and organization to see how the concept of
hula is reflected in both natural and controlled vocabularies.
LITERATURE REVIEW
All systems of knowledge representation and organization
exhibit biases because these systems typically favor the
mainstream view (e.g., Green, 2015; Olson & Schlegl,
2001). Previous research has shown that Indigenous peoples
in the United States have been marginalized in universal
knowledge organization systems “through historicization,
omission, lack of specificity, lack of relevance and lack of
recognition of sovereign nations” (Doyle, 2006, p. 437).
Although non-Indigenous information professionals may
have good intentions to align distinctly non-Western
ontologies to traditional systems of representation and
organization, they participate in a greater colonial logic of
assimilation that contributes to a “blindness about the full
depth and range of Native ways of knowing” (Duarte &
Belarde-Lewis, 2015, p. 685). For example, databases to
store indigenous knowledge may focus on fragments of
language, photographs, and other artifacts but “you cannot
separate the part from the whole” (p. 686). Artifacts only
represent Indigenous knowledge when they are placed in
context within their worlds of meaning. These ways of
knowing are not text-based but rather “oral, communal,
aesthetic, kinesthetic, and emergent from living landscapes”
(p. 685). As a result, Indigenous peoples have had to
recognize their effective marginalization by using
inaccurate and imprecise organization of documents and
subject headings or through collecting their own items in
“smaller, flexible, sometimes ephemeral, private offline and
online locations” (p. 679).
To date, however, none of the research on Indigenous
knowledge systems has thoroughly examined the unique
culture and hospitality, and the love or aloha of the Kanaka
Maoli (Hawaiian) people. Through examining controlled
and natural language representation of Hawaiian hula, this
research aims to contribute to understanding and improving
representation of Hawaiian cultural heritage.
METHOD
In order to analyze the controlled and natural language
vocabularies for representation and organization of
Hawaiian culture, in particular Hawaiian hula, the most
widely accepted and used systems were examined: the
Library of Congress Classification (LCC), the Dewey
Decimal Classification (DDC). The search terms “Hawaii”
and “hula” were used.
Results and Discussions
The search in WebDewey using the terms “Hawaii” and
“hula” to find what relevant class numbers are available in
the DDC, returned no option to classify Hula. Thus,
Hawaiian hula is omitted DDC provides option to classify
Hawaiian Islands through relative indexes:
T2--969 - Hawaii and neighboring north central Pacific
Ocean islands; T2--9691-T2--9694 - Hawaii; T2--9691Hawaii County (Hawaii Island); T2--9692- Maui County;
T2--96921 - Maui Island; T2--96922 - Kahoolawe Island;
T2--96923 - Lanai Island; T2--96924 - Molokai Island; T2-9693 - Honolulu County (Oahu Island); T2--96931 Honolulu; T2--9694 - Kauai County; T2--96941- Kauai
Island; T2--96942- Niihau Island; T5--050901-T5--050909Europeans and people of European descent of mixed
ancestry with specific non-European ethnic and national
groups; T5--9942- Hawaiians (Native people).
DDC notes also suggest the class number 347.969 to
classify civil procedure and courts of Hawaii; 348.969 for
laws, regulations, cases of Hawaii in; 647.95969 for
restaurants of Hawaii; and 708.996 for galleries, museums,
private collections in Hawaii.
A keyword search for “Hula” in the Library of Congress
Classification System returned the class number for hula as
GV1798.H8, which is classified under the Recreation,
Leisure:
Recreation, Leisure- Dance- Special dances, A-Z- Hula.
LCC also provides the option of classifying Hula Language
under Languages of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania:
PL6248.H84-.H8495
Languages of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania – Languages of
Oceania- Austronesian, Papuan, and Australian languages-
Austronesian – Oceanic languages- Austronesian – Oceanic
languages. Eastern Austronesian - Micronesian and
Melanesian languages – Special languages - Halia – Iai –
Hula
As we can see, both DDC and LCC systems are not only
omitted representation of Hawaiian hula, but also has
diasporized the representation of Hawaii through its
dispersion across classes and indexes. It is resulted in a
limited and non- concentrated representation of existence
and identity of Hawaii in the system.
CONCLUSION
This study contributes to the relatively limited scholarship
on representation and organization for Indigenous
knowledge organization systems. This is significant for
Library and Information Science because traditional
knowledge organization systems assimilate Indigenous
culture into existing schemes (Metoyer & Doyle, 2015). In
so doing, the emphasis is on the particular (artifact,
language fragment) rather than the holistic (space and
place). Our research study suggests that access to Native
Hawaiian cultural heritage for Kanaka Maoli will raise
awareness among information professionals in Hawaii to
the beauty of Native Hawaiian epistemology. Kanaka Maoli
hula dancer, the image of Hawai’i, has a special value and
meaning to the people of Kanaka Maoli that need to be
heard and represented.
REFERENCES
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2008). Critical
methodologies and Indigenous inquiry. In N. K. Denzin,
Y. S. Lincoln, & L. T. Smith (Eds.), Handbook of
critical and Indigenous methodologies (pp. 1-20). Los
Angeles: Sage.
Desmond, J. C. (1997). Invoking "The Native": Body
Politics in Contemporary Hawaiian Tourist Shows. TDR
(1988-), 41(4), 83-109. doi:10.2307/1146662
Doyle, A. (2006). Naming and reclaiming indigenous
knowledge: Intersections of landscape and experience.”
In G.Budin, C. Swertz, K.Mitgutsch (Eds.) Advances
in knowledge organization (10), Knowledge
Organization for a Global Learning Society:
Proceedings of the Ninth International ISKO
Conference, 4-7 July 2006, Vienna, Austria (pp. 435442). Würzburg: Ergon Verlag.
Duarte, M.E., & Belarde-Lewis, M. (2015). Imagining:
Creating spaces for indigenous ontologies. Cataloging
& Classification Quarterly, 53(5-6), 677–702.
Emerson, N.B. (1909). Unwritten literature of Hawaii: the
sacred songs of the hula. Smithsonian Institution:
Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 38.
Green, R. (2015). Indigenous peoples in the U.S., Sovereign
Nations, and the DDC. Knowledge Organization,
42(4), 211-221.
Imada, A. (2004). Hawaiians on tour: Hula circuits through
the American Empire. American Quarterly, 56(1), 111149
Imada, A. (2012). Aloha America: Hula Circuits Through
the U.S. Empire. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Ku‘uleialoha Stillman, A. (1998). Sacred Hula: The
Historical Hula ‘¯Ala‘apapa. Honolulu, HI: Bishop
Museum Press.
Metoyer, C. A., & Doyle, A. M. (2015). Introduction.
Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 53(5-6), 475478. doi:10.1080/01639374.2015.1027984
Meyer, M. A. (2008). Indigenous and authentic: Hawaiian
epistemology and the triangulation of meaning. In N.
K. Denzin, Y. S. Lincoln, & L. T. Smith (Eds.),
Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies
(pp. 217-232). Los Angeles: Sage.
Olson, H., & Schlegl. R. (2001). Standardization,
objectivity, and user focus: A meta- analysis of subject
access critiques. Cataloging & Classification
Quarterly, 32(2), 61– 80.
O’Neill Moanike’ala Ah-Lan Keawe, L. (2008). Ki’I
papalua: Imagery and Colonialism in Hawai’i.
Unpublished dissertation.
Trask, H.-K. (1999). From a native daughter: Colonialism
and sovereignty in Hawai*i (Rev. ed.). Honolulu:
University of Hawai*i Press.
Whaangaa, H., Bainbridgeb, D., Andersona, M.,
Scrivenerb, K., Caderb, P., Roaa, T., & Keeganb, T.T.
(2015). He Matapihi Mā Mua, Mō Muri: The ethics,
processes, and procedures associated with the
digitization of indigenous knowledge—The Pei Jones
collection. Cataloguing & Classification Quarterly,
53(5-6), 520-547.