Rights, roots, and resistance: Land and indigenous (trans)nationalism in contemporary Hawai'i

In the dissertation, I examine the ways in which the emergence of the contemporary native Hawaiian nationalist movement has shaped identity formation among Hawai'i's multi-ethnic population.;My research results draw on twenty-two months of ethnographic fieldwork on the island of Oahu and incorporate a combination of life narratives, participant observation, legal interpretation, statistical data, and textual analysis. I argue that in the face of indigenous activism, land has become important to identity formation and cultural production for not only native Hawaiians, but also many non-native residents of Hawai'i. I show that the mutual constitution of indigenous and non-indigenous identities in Hawai'i influences both everyday practice and memories about the past. For example, I show that cultural practices deemed in anthropological literature and popular social narratives as self-defining for indigenous peoples, such as traditional agricultural work and native language acquisition, can hold deep personal meaning for non-native peoples as well. And, examining collective memory in Hawai'i, I suggest that changing cultural, political, and economic contexts influence the way history is remembered. Specifically, through ethnographies of public spaces intended to celebrate diverse ethnic migrations to Hawai'i, I argue that at distinct historical moments, certain stories from the past become more critical to developing a sense of belonging in the present.;Finally, I engage in an examination of state practices, demonstrating that efforts by the state of Hawai'i and the U.S. Federal government legally to categorize native Hawaiian identity result in interesting contradictions. I also show that blood quantum requirements and other legal obstacles prevent native Hawaiians from claiming lands held in trust for them by the state, therefore perpetuating the "uprooting" of indigenous Hawaiians. I suggest that the challenge for the state is to address the disjuncture between the reality of racial heterogeneity and limiting analytical structures that privilege racial and ethnic homogeneity. I show that opening new spaces for multiracial identity analysis is of particular importance when adjudicating the contemporary rights claims of ethnically and racially mixed native peoples.