HĀNAI KA WAIKULU MAI KAHIKI I KE KĪPUKA: Cultural Kīpuka, Kahiki and Becoming Kanaka

Abstract

This thesis examines how cultural kīpuka – sites of cultural strongholds as identified by Davianna Pōmaikaʻi McGregor – are a form of and formed by the Hawaiian identities of Kanaka who exist within and move through them. Drawing upon the life history and philosophies of Robert “Bobby” Alcain – a homestead farmer, practitioner of lāʻau lapaʻau, and native of Molokai – I disrupt the notions of unchanged culture within these kīpuka. By building upon the work of McGregor, I argue that cultural kīpuka are not passive refuges preserved by geographic isolation but active sites of world-building through conscious practice. Complicating the cultural kīpuka allows us to understand that the space produces the conditions for a Hawaiian identity but does not produce that identity automatically. I draw upon Emalani Case’s theorization of Kahiki – that is, our ancestral homelands and the exploration of life beyond our shores – in which she asserts that it is a place of sanctuary and discomfort. I operate at the hyper-local scale of cultural kīpuka to say that Kahiki is all places outside of the kīpuka, even places that exist within Hawaiʻi, to demonstrate the recontextualization of identity that takes place as Kanaka Hawaiʻi move throughout the islands and beyond. I argue that it is our encounters with Kahiki that make the kīpuka visible and allow for a commitment to be made to the project of being Hawaiian. The formation of the kīpuka as a physical and cultural space, and the formation of Kanaka identities are co-constructed. Ultimately, I articulate that the cultural kīpuka is not a static refuge, but a reference point for engaging the past, present and future to answer the question of who are we as we recontextualize our identities with each journey beyond our shores.