[nativestudies-l] New book by Ty Kawika Tengan: Native Men Remade

[jkauanui at wesleyan.edu]

New from Duke University Press.
To order:
http://www.dukeupress.edu/books.php3?isbn=978-0-8223-4321-9

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Native Men Remade: Gender and Nation in Contemporary Hawai'i

Many indigenous Hawaiian men have felt profoundly disempowered by the
legacies of colonization and by the tourist industry, which, in addition
to occupying a great deal of land, promotes a feminized image of Native
Hawaiians (evident in the ubiquitous figure of the dancing hula girl). In
the 1990s a group of Native men on the island of Maui responded by
refashioning and reasserting their masculine identities in a group called
the Hale Mua (the “Men’s House”). As a member and an ethnographer, Ty P.
Kāwika Tengan analyzes how the group’s mostly middle-aged, middle-class,
and mixed-race members assert a warrior masculinity through practices
including martial arts, woodcarving, and cultural ceremonies. Some of
their practices are heavily influenced by or borrowed from other
indigenous Polynesian traditions, including those of the Māori. The men of
the Hale Mua enact their refashioned identities as they participate in
temple rites, protest marches, public lectures, and cultural fairs.

The sharing of personal stories is an integral part of Hale Mua
fellowship, and Tengan’s account is filled with members’ first-person
narratives. At the same time, Tengan explains how Hale Mua rituals and
practices connect to broader projects of cultural revitalization and
Hawaiian nationalism. He brings to light the tensions that mark the
group’s efforts to reclaim indigenous masculinity as they arise in debates
over nineteenth-century historical source materials and during political
and cultural gatherings held in spaces designated as tourist sites. He
explores class status anxieties expressed through the sharing of
individual life stories, critiques of the Hale Mua registered by Hawaiian
women, and challenges the group received in dialogues with other
indigenous Polynesians. Native Men Remade is the fascinating story of how
gender, culture, class, and personality intersect as a group of indigenous
Hawaiian men work to overcome the dislocations of colonial history.

    “This book concerns a distinctive Hawaiian men’s movement dedicated to
decolonizing male consciousness by means of ritualized physical
disciplines modeled after historically resonant warrior images. The
writing is powerful, and the point of view is a compelling blend of
interpretive humility and analytical forthrightness. Offering a wealth
of insider testimony drawn from detailed interviews and from his own
engaged experience in the Hale Mua, Ty P. Kāwika Tengan makes
contemporary Hawaiian struggles and sensibilities accessible to
non-Hawaiians by contextualizing them historically, culturally, and
comparatively. This work will interest scholars of gender, race, and
postcolonial cultures, as well as both academic and non-specialist
readers interested in the contemporary Pacific.”—Rena Lederman,
Princeton University

    “Native Men Remade is a tour de force. Ty P. Kāwika Tengan combines
participant observation and archival and oral history in a study of
the Hale Mua, a group of Hawaiian men who have revived ancient martial
arts, carving skills, and rituals. As both member and ethnographer,
Tengan engages passionate debates about the ‘emasculation’ of Hawaiian
men by colonialism and tourism, the contested place of men and women
in nationalism, and feminist critiques of Hawaiian patriarchy and
gender violence. For Hawaiian peoples navigating their future, he
suggests there are ‘more islands of hope than of despair.’”—Margaret
Jolly, Head of the Gender Relations Centre, The Australian National
University

Ty P. Kāwika Tengan is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Ethnic
Studies at the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa.