Post #4645 by aquarj on Tue, Jul 30, 2002 1:43 AM

The thing that jumps out at me from this guy's article is that he's dead wrong in many ways. He talks like he represents the Hawaiian people (carefully spelling it Hawai'i), and represents them as a humorless bunch who sniff with wounded pride every time a "haole" enjoys a tropical fantasy that contains some piece of tiki imagery. There may be some Hawaiians like this, just like there are some Christians like this, to use his example. But on the whole, I think Polynesians are hardly the sober indignant bunch that he describes.

I've been to Hawaii many times, and my parents have a friend directly descended from the royal family. These people have a great sense of humor, they love the islands, they love visitors, they love to party, they understand the mainlanders' fantasies about exotic islands, and they like to discuss and poke fun at the same time about many of the semi-mystical beliefs associated with tiki and the old KAPU laws. All with a full understanding that these are artifacts of another time, not like some sacred imagery that should be locked up in a monastery somewhere and only whispered about in awe by appointed native guardians.

The natives I know have never shown any tendency to be offended by the proliferation of any form of hawaiiana lite in pop culture, because they're smart enough to recognize that it's strictly about having fun. If anyone knows how to have fun, it's the Polynesians - they invented the luau! And they also see that in some ways it actually stimulates interest in the serious preservation of a historical culture. But of course that's not the main thrust of polynesian pop.

I always think of viking stuff in Scandinavia as a similar example. Over there, you can get all kinds of little viking tchotchkes and horned helmets and stuff, all because the people, on the whole, are able to have FUN with it!

-Randy