Ethics in Song: Becoming Kama'āina in Hapa-Haole Music 1

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Ethics in Song

Ethics in Song: state of mind while participating in the destruction of a host people in a Native Becoming Kama‘āina place (1999, 137). Her essay hammers out 1 in Hapa-Haole Music hard statistics of material conditions that support her condemnation of tourism as “the major cause of environmental deg- Aiko Yamashiro radation, low wages, land dispossession, University of Hawai‘i-Mānoa and the highest cost of living in the Unit- ed States” (1999, 144). USA It is no accident that Trask borrows her essay’s title, “Lovely Hula Hands,” from the name of the hit song written by Just five hours away by plane from Califor- R. Alex Anderson in 1940 about a beauti- nia, Hawai‘i is a thousand light years away ful, graceful hula dancer. For Trask, this in fantasy. Mostly a state of mind, Hawai‘i song signifies not only the feminized is the image of escape from the rawness and and sexualized stereotypes of Hawai‘i violence of daily American life. Hawai‘i— the word, the vision, the sound in the that were promulgated and are perpetu- mind—is the fragrance and feel of soft kind- ated by U.S. popular culture, but also ness. Above all, Hawai‘i is “she,” the West- these stereotypes’ power in the American ern image of the Native “female” in her imagination. As documented in work by magical allure. And if luck prevails, some Elizabeth Tatar, Adria Imada, and Charles of “her” will rub off on you, the visitor. Hiroshi Garrett,2 among others, Hawaiian (Trask 1999, 136-7) music, via sheet music, the new technolo- gies of records and radio, and live trav- elling performances, was a driving force n “‘Lovely Hula Hands’: Corporate for the “Hawaii Craze,” that besotted the Tourism and the Prostitution of Ha- U.S. during the first half of the 20th centu- waiian Culture,” Native Hawaiian ry.3 A new musical genre also grew out of activist,I poet, and scholar Haunani-Kay this period—“hapa-haole” music (“half- Trask critiques mass, corporate tourism foreign”)—a hybrid genre that mixed as “cultural prostitution,” an exploita- American jazz and dance rhythms (swing tion that depends on figuring Hawai‘i as and foxtrot), Hawaiian instrumentation a complicit, inviting, exotic female. Trask (such as the steel guitar and ‘ukulele), underscores the power of popular culture and lyrics in both English and Hawaiian- to perpetuate these debilitating stereo- languages. Through national (U.S.) song- types and argues that these representa- hits like “Lovely Hula Hands,” “My Little tions lead to real and devastating effects. Grass Shack,” “Hawaiian War Chant,” In her cutting words, the “attraction of and “Sweet Leilani,” hapa-haole music Hawai‘i is stimulated by slick Hollywood solidified and perpetuated U.S. mainland movies, saccharine Andy Williams mu- caricatures of Hawai‘i as a place of grass sic . . . . Tourists flock to my Native land shacks,white sandy beaches, lovely hula for escape, but they are escaping into a maidens, and happy dancing natives.

I argue that these sweet and tanta- cal structure and the disruptive potential lizing songs also played a significant of a performer’s ethos. Ultimately, I aim role as reassuring and enabling texts in to demonstrate that in the case of music, the larger project of settler colonialism, settler texts are entirely captivating yet through their appropriation and breezy not static; and that through performance translation of the Hawaiian concept they can be directed and re-directed for “kama‘āina.” Kama‘āina is often trans- overlapping and conflicting purposes. lated literally as “child of the land” and The use of music can raise some unset- can also mean local, native, “old-timer,” tling questions about what we may call or host. Its linguistic counterpart is “ma- “settler texts.” lihini,” a foreigner or newcomer, a guest, or a “tenderfoot.” Today, kama‘āina is a Kama‘āina and the ethics of settler colo- Hawai’ian term valued by businesses as nialism theory an easy way to advertise local-ness, fa- Settler colonialism theory often depends miliarity, and belonging. For example, on a hard-and-fast distinction between many businesses employ kama‘āina in Native/indigenous and non-Native/ their names to show a connection to the settler. This distinction is designed to do community (Kama‘āina Pest Control, the ethical work of undermining settler Kama‘āina Kids Day Dare, Kama‘āina claims and recognizing and restoring in- Pizza Hut, etc.). The term is also com- digenous peoples’ unique rights to land. monly used to label a type of monetary Kama‘āina and malihini have often been discount (e.g., the admission price to defined along this binary by supportive a theme park may have a “kama‘āina Hawai‘i scholars4. For example, in his discount”for people who can prove, 1999 book Displacing Natives: The Rhetori- through a Hawai‘ian driver’s license for cal Production of Hawai‘i, Houston Wood example, that they live here.) Historically, argues that kama‘āina in the Hawaiian this value placed on belonging—of being language originally meant “Native-born” kama‘āina—has also been a cornerstone or indigenous Hawaiian and that this of settler colonialism in Hawai‘i. Settler meaning changed over the early 1900s colonialism has drastically refigured the into “island-born” or “well-acquainted” concept of kama‘āina in various popular with Hawai‘i. He uses Mary Louise- cultural texts, hapa-haole music being Pratt’s idea of “anti-conquest rhetoric” one of many examples, putting focus on to explain that a kama‘āina identity was the idea of becoming kama‘āina as an eas- taken up by white missionaries’ children ily attainable possibility. This paper will (who were born in Hawai‘i, as opposed trace some of the history of how the term to their parents who came to Hawai‘i kama‘āina has been transformed in the from New England) to do the “dual service of settler colonialism. I will also work of asserting innocence while secur- explore some musical examples that ar- ing hegemony” (1999, 40). Tracing the gue that outsiders can become kama‘āina, transformation of the word, Wood sur- and consider the unique ethical prob- veys the popular tourist and white set- lems of posing this argument through tler publication Paradise of the Pacificfrom music: the embodied experience of musi- 1909 to 1910, concluding that quite liter-

2 Ethics in Song

ally, kama‘āina had gradually come to re- before legendary battles in deciding who place the words “white” and “foreigner” was to strike the first blow” (Pukui 1983, (1999, 41): “By the 1930s, at least for the 124). It is unlikely that the malihini in the mostly Euroamerican writers in the pag- context of “legendary battles” referred to es of Paradise of the Pacific, kama‘āina re- non-Native foreigners, and very likely ferred to Caucasians who had lived long that it referred to a person from another in the islands, or who claimed to know island or another part of the same island. much about ‘island ways’” (1999, 41). In addition, Hawaiian-language songs Linking the processes of colonialism and like “Wai Punalau” (1897) and “Akaka tourism, Wood’s argument identifies the Falls” (1934) use the word malihini in white settler’s/visitor’s very real desire a non-ethnic, non-nationalistic way to to become kama‘āina as a colonial desire simply describe unfamiliarity with a par- and appropriation of indigenous iden- ticular place in Hawai‘i (the waters of tity.5 His reassertion of kama‘āina as Na- Punalau and Akaka Falls, respectively). tive (indigenous) thus attempts to undo These kinds of sources assume that a colonial claims and lead to an ethical for- person is kama‘āina or malihini by their mulation based on recognizing impossi- knowledge and relationship to place. A bility: If you are not Native, you cannot be- kama‘āina has specific knowledge about come Native, and can therefore never have the a specific place that a malihini does not. same claims to land.An ethics based on this Along with this knowledge require- polar understanding between kama‘āina ment, the possibility of becoming kama‘āina and malihini relies on responsibly recog- is already culturally inherent to the con- 6 nizing impossibility. cept. The saying “E ho‘okama‘āina! Yet this irrevocable distinction be- Make yourself at home (said to strang- tween Native and non-Native contra- ers)” (Pukui 1983, 124) suggests that, dicts what is found in cultural material even if meant figuratively, kama‘āina can in other Hawaiian-language folklore become a verb and an imperative in the sources, namely ‘ōlelo no‘eau (wise/po- context of hospitality8. Strangers are wel- etical sayings or proverbs) and Hawai- comed into this identity, but the welcome ian-language songs that use the words is bound by responsibility. For example, kama‘āina and malihini.7 Although ma- the ‘ōlelo no‘eau “Ho‘okāhi no [sic] lā o lihini was used to refer to white foreign- ka malihini” is translated as “A stranger ers and newcomers to Hawai‘i, the word only for a day” and explained, “After was not exclusively reserved for non-Na- the first day as a guest, one must help tives. In the standard Pukui and Elbert with the work” (Pukui 1983, 115). Based Hawaiian-English Dictionary, malihini is on this Hawaiian cultural knowledge, a more broadly defined as a “stranger, for- more difficult ethic emerges in which it eigner, newcomer,” “one unfamiliar with is not only possible to become kama‘āina; a place or custom” (Pukui and Elbert further, one ought to. In contrast to the 1957, 233). One ‘ōlelo no‘eau reads “Ma- limiting settler colonial model of ethics mua ke kama‘āina, mahope ka malihini, discussed earlier (bound by impossibili- first the native-born, then the stranger” ty), this ethical model defines its limits in and explained as something “often said terms of responsibility and care between

3 Aiko Yamashiro Ethics in Song

the land, host, and guest. I say “more dif- himself from the “run-of-the-mill tour- ficult ethic” because the translation of ist” but, as Dean MacCannell elaborates this model out of the Hawaiian language in The Tourist, this very renunciation of and cultural context and into a tourism the tourist category is essential to tour- discourse can and has offered a danger- ism. As MacCannell put it, tourists are ous opening to making colonial claims to motivated by a desire “to go beyond the a kama‘āina identity. To qualify Wood’s other ‘mere’ tourists to a more profound argument, we can understand the colo- appreciation of society and culture” nial appropriation of kama‘āina as some- (1976, 10). In other words, the ability and thing the term had been vulnerable to all possibility of becoming kama‘āina is a along. necessary dimension of mass tourism. We can look at Jack London’s desire London’s story demonstrates the inti- to be kama‘āina as a brief example of mate link between tourist pleasures and the way kama‘āina was used as a tour- settler colonial desire. ist and settler strategy to soothe possible At the same time, we must not forget unease about identity and imperialism. about the resonance kama‘āina still holds In a chapter titled “Becoming Hawai- in Native Hawaiian epistemology. How ian: Jack London, Cultural Tourism, and can the invitation to become kama‘āina si- the Myth of Hawaiian Exceptionalism,” multaneously sustain settler colonialism, John Eperjesi identifies London’s desire tourism, and Native Hawaiian culture? to be kama‘āina as a desire to move from These kinds of paradoxes are unavoid- “same to other, from us to them from ma- able in a colonized place like Hawai‘i, lihini to kamaaiana [sic]” (2005, 127). The layered with a conflicted history, and call transformation is effected through the into question the possibility of decoloniz- Londons’ participation in Hawaiian cul- ing such fraught concepts. For example, tural activities like surfing and attending Keiko Ohnuma’s work on “aloha spirit” lū‘au. These kinds of “adventures” (2005, traces how the Hawaiian cultural concept 113) helped distance the Londons from of aloha has been taken up and altered the “run-of-the-mill tourists” (2005, 114) by Christianity, tourism, and the multi- and their white American identities, ul- cultural Democratic State of Hawai‘i.9 timately “[giving] the Londons the con- Ohnuma concludes that aloha’s compli- fidence to extract themselves from com- cated genealogy renders it difficult to plicity with the project of imperialism” reclaim by Hawaiian nationalist groups, (2005, 127). In other words, the “fantasy for “the term’s history already contains of becoming kamaaiana [sic] . . . enabled within it competing markers of nation- [the Londons] to believe that they had hood” (2008, 380).10 Instead of dismiss- distanced themselves from their Ameri- ing the concept of kama‘āina, I would canness. According to Lili‘uokalani, this like to keep its contested meanings at fantasy, which was becoming quite pop- the forefront of this paper., The concept’s ular amongst white settlers around the conflicted malleability is both restricted turn of the century, was one of the most and augmented by hapa-haole music, a insidious weapons for annexation” (2005, genre that wields a unique transforma- 106-7). London is happy to be distancing tive power. The rest of this paper will fo-

4 Ethics in Song

cus on the multiple processes and strate- ried away” (2004, 79).11 The subject (the gies by which settler colonial claims for listener or viewer) falls away from grap- a more local identity can be issued and pling with reality and falls into passive made persuasive, looking in particular at sensation and imagination (2004, 80-81). the rhetorical force of music. This formulation suggests that the experience of music itself can effect a subjec- “I’m Just A Kamaaina Now”: tive transformation. A musical structure musical stories and transformations can make a certain argument work by carrying listeners along with it. Whether Because the English language is stress- or not they want to, they must experience timed rather than syllable-timed, words’ the highs and lows of a song, the changes meanings often depend on the particular in rhythm and stress, and all these tech- stress and rhythm of spoken delivery. niques have (at least subconscious) ef- When words are set to music, certain fects. stresses are made mandatory by the melody itself, which in turn create dominant In thinking about settler colonialism, understandings of the words’ meanings. Theodor Adorno’s argument about the As musical rhetorician Simon Frith ex- power of music as “social cement” (2002 plains, the spoken phrase “she loves “Popular,” 460) takes on new relevance. you” “shifts its narrative meaning (if not In his elaboration of mass listening habits its semantic sense) according to whether in “On Popular Music,” Adorno stress- the emphasis is placed on the ‘she’ (rather es the importance of recognition (2002 than someone else), ‘loves’ (rather than “Popular,” 452). The average listener hates), or ‘you’ (rather than me or him). gains pleasure out of listening to popular In setting the words to music, the Beatles music because of its familiarity (it sounds had to choose one stress, one dominant like all the other songs) which in turn implication. The song becomes the pre- is created through mind-numbing rep- ferred reading of the words.” (1996, 181). etition (of themes, notes, melodies, etc.). My close analysis of the music in this Music—and in this case he specifically section will focus on the interaction be- mentions Tin Pan Alley as an example of tween melodic stress and meaning while standardized, mass-produced music— 12 also questioning the dominance of these needs to be easy and predictable. This created meanings. standardization creates a parallel effect in the listener: “popular music divests the Several theorists have pointed to the listener of his spontaneity and promotes ways in which music’s it’s use of rhythm conditioned reflexes.” It is “predigested” and ability to invoke strong feeling, poses (2002 “Popular,” 442-3). Popular music, a unique ethical situation. For example, as mass entertainment and part of the in “Reality and Its Shadow,” Emmanuel culture industry, thus works to subdue Lévinas explores the danger of rhythm individuality into an obedient collective (in music specifically but also in poetry of workers. To keep people contentedly and visual art) as “the unique situation working at industrialized drudgery, lei- where we cannot speak of consent, as- sure time must provide relief through sumption, initiative or liberty, because “effortless sensation” (2002 “Popular,” the subject is seized by rhythm and car-

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459), fun that requires no work at all. lihini Anymore” and “Kamaaina,” both From Adorno’s analysis, we see that mu- copyrighted in 1935 by Johnny Noble sic has the potential to provide, without and published in a collection titled Johnny any effort of thought by the individual, a Noble’s Book of Famous Hawaiian Melodies; sense of community and engender a feel- Including Hulas and Popular Standards that ing of recognition. How might it host a was distributed out of the large Miller transformation into kama‘āina (joining a Music Company in New York.14 Though local community) and allay outsider anx- neither of these songs appear to have ieties about being strangers in a strange been popular successes at the time they land? were written,15 their step-by-step expla- Both Lévinas and Adorno were se- nations of the transformation from mali- verely mistrustful of music as an obstacle hini to kama‘āina are blatantly pertinent to accountability, control, and thought. to questions of settler colonial strategies, They were also both writing nearly con- and well worth thinking about theoreti- temporaneously with the worldwide cally. popularity of hapa-haole music, which The first song, “I’m Not a Malihini makes their thoughts on this particu- Anymore,” tells the story of a wandering lar genre especially relevant, as long as malihini who arrives in Hawai‘i and de- we keep in mind certain qualifications. cides to settle there. Narrated in first per- To counter Adorno’s cultural and class- son and addressed to Hawai‘i generally based elitist dismissal of popular culture or someone representative of Hawai‘i, and its revolutionary potential, I would the malihini describes his transformation like to also work with Gayatri Spivak’s through pleasant Hawaiian cultural, now discussion of the ethical in fiction (which turned tourist activities such as learning I am here applying to narrative and sto- how to “eat fish and poi,” “swim like a ry more generally) as an “interruption” real beach boy,” how to do the “hula hula (2002, 17). Spivak argues that literature dance,” and “the meaning of Aloha too.” can give “rhetorical signals to the reader, The ease and fun of this education is as- which can lead to activating the readerly serted, as the lyric’s passive verbs imply imagination.”13 For example, characters that all of these things were learned while that are denied focalization in a story can the malihini “lingered long on [Hawai‘i’s] provoke a reader to “counterfocalize” shore.” These verbs also subtly establish (2002, 22). The act of imagining something the malihini character as an innocent re- difficult and unverifiable is itself an ethi- ceiver of Hawai‘i’s “songs and leis.” He cal act; it is the practice of “imagin[ing] is clearly not forcing any Natives to do the other who does not resemble the self” anything they don’t want to do. (2002, 23). Can settler texts also stage re- Musically, we can feel and experi- sponsible understandings across cultural ence the tragedy of the wandering ma- difference? In this section, I will explore lihini character in the long and deliber- the ethical ramifications of the interplay ate notes of the introduction, the story between narrative interruption and musi- of the voyage. After a pensive minor- cal coercion in two songs explicitly about chord rising proclamation under “no becoming kama‘āina: “I’m Not A Ma- more will I roam,” the answer appears

6 Ethics in Song

to lie in the line “I’m going to make Ha- The song ends confidently with the as- waii my home.” I say “appears,” because sertion “I’m not a malihini any more I’m the word “home” is sung over a seventh telling you/I’m just a Kamaaina now.” chord, which, in Western ballad music, is Musically, the song’s ending pounds out problematic to finish on because a melo- this emphatic claim, the chords chang- dy is not resolved until the seventh chord ing quickly with each word of “more moves into its major chord. The place- I’m telling you,” and the melody driving ment of the seventh chord under the lyric excitedly upward into one of the highest “home,” necessitates that we (as listen- notes of the song. Only in the final word, ers) continue into the malihini’s rationale “now,” does the song finally resolve into of rebirth. The subsequent phrases (each an ending major chord. This resulting a bullet point in a list of tourist activities) stress on the word “now” emphasizes also resist musical resolution, requiring the immediate presence of the new state the song to continue to march forward. of being as kama‘āina and suggests that Moreover, the rhythm under “malihini” the transformation described also trans- is repeated under “kamaaina,” musically pired within the song itself. Melodic con- linking the terms together and subtly vention forces us to this reading, leaving preparing us for the replacement of one no other option.

Fig. 1. Johnny Noble, “I’m Not A Malihini Anymore,” mm. 55-68. Published by Miller Music (1935). with the otherby way of their similarity. Yet there is an anxiety about this mali- The triumph of kama‘āina feels inevi- hini’s story, a characteristic, according to table, as its final two syllables are given Stephen Turner, that marks it as a settler long, weighty notes that deliver us into narrative. This unease speaks to Turn- the ending, as opposed to the notes of the er’s description of the internal, inescap- final syllables of malihini, which quickly able “self-contradiction of the settler” he dance away.

7 Aiko Yamashiro Ethics in Song

terms “colonial being—a mode of being in of the Hawaiian word a kamaaina, which a place which is discontinuous with its means not only an old timer, but an old past (the past of place)” (2002, 40). Settler timer who belongs because he wants to narratives—whether “historical and/ belong” (“Everybody Knows” 15). In or fictional and/or personal”—try to Hawai‘i settler rhetoric, being kama‘āina cover this up, they “provide an illusory has often been justified through mere re- continuity, a more or less seamless sense assertion and self-reassurance. of place and history” (2002, 59), but the Another characteristic of settler narra- narratives themselves are unsettled and tive, according to Turner, is a rationale of cannot suppress the sometimes brief ap- affection and emotion in which the set- pearances of anxiety or indignation. In tler’s “real feeling for the place and in- his essay on settler colonial texts in a digenous peoples entitles him to claim New Zealand/Aotearoa context, “Being that he is indigenous” (2002, 50).16 This Colonial/Colonial Being,” Turner identi- rhetoric sets up our second song, “Ka- fies the main purpose of settler narratives maaina.” Again narrated in the first per- as having to “settle the settler” (2002, son, this time by a self-proclaimed “ma- 55). Some telling trademarks include lihini haole boy,” the song begins with bursts of indignation, proclamations of swooning declarations of love for “Dear decency, grand expressions of genuine Honolulu,” a “wond’rous paradise.” He feeling, and general anxiety, discomfort, wants “to do like the natives do.” and and contradiction. These are all signs of prove that “I can be a KAMAAINA too.” how “the anxiety of colonial being, and This song is even more conscious of the the indignation associated with it, infects power of music than “I’m Not a Malihini stories of place” (2002, 50). In the song Anymore”—the Natives seem largely “I’m Not a Malihini Anymore,” it is sig- preoccupied with song and dance—they nificant that the malihini is all alone in chant, croon, and hula. After learning his story of becoming kama‘āina. Gaping these music-based skills, the malihini absences are left by the malihini’s ob- proudly concludes, “So Honolulu, I can sessive repetition of I, I, I in this uneasy always say/I’m a KAMAAINA to you autobiography. Both the land and other now.” Much like the first song, this end- kama‘āina characters seem to be point- ing statement is showily adorned with edly left out. Perhaps the extremely con- rapid chord changes over every syllable fident and self-assertive ending acts as an of “a KAMAAINA to you now,” and the overblown overcompensation in the face “now” is also aligned with the necessary of this outsider’s unspoken concerns. A concluding major chord. settler penchant for self-determination, Because this song is in cut time, also via claiming a kama‘āina identity, also notated as 2/2 and indicating double surfaces in other kinds of Hawai‘i popu- speed, the main stress falls on the first lar culture texts. For example, a Paradise and third beats of each measure (if we of the Pacific article from 1917 describes read each measure as having four beats, a Honolulu candidate for mayor as fol- as each would in 4/4 time). This rhythm lows: “Joel C. Cohen, widely and heart- underscores a subtle shift in the stress ily known as just ‘Joe’, is in every sense between the phrase “I can be a KAMA-

8 Ethics in Song

AINA too” in the middle of the song and This Native presence comes closest “I’m a KAMAAINA to you now” at the to the surface in a highly ambiguous end of the song. In the first phrase, the moment that happens over the longest first and third beats fall under the “I” Hawaiian-language phrase in the song: (referring to the malihini) and the “ka” “He inu i ka okolehao, malama pono oe of kama‘āina, thus linking the two terms ahahana ehehene.” Roughly translated, and foreshadowing the I’s adoption of this sentence would be “drink the okole- this identity. By the end, however, the I is hao [a drink akin to moonshine], take pushed back to the fourth beat, shifting care la la la la.”17 There are many pos- the emphasis to the “ka” (and therefore sible explanations as to why the words kama‘āina) and “now” (the first beat of break down into sounds at this point. For the next measure). Again, the relation true malihini unfamiliar with Hawaiian, between the rhythm and the melody of this section could serve as the obligatory the song argues for the transformative nonsense syllables that made Hawaiian potential of music itself in the story of music enjoyable and playful for outsid- becoming kama‘āina. ers.18 For Hawaiian speakers (and we can This second song, “Kamaaina,” differs assume a fair amount of Native Hawai- from the first in one important way—the ians did still understand the language at addition of Native characters as both a this point, although this population of colluding and countering voice in the speakers was steadily decreasing), this text. The malihini names the existence part of the text could speak directly and of “natives” and “tropical hula maid- specifically to them, a small inside joke ens” who are “happy all day long” and that not just anyone could access. Both then quotes them: “‘Aloha mai’ they all these interpretations are supported by say to me ‘E komo mai’/They’re inviting the fun surprise of the melodic jump me.” These quotations are set off melodi- from middle F to high F between “ahah- cally from the rest of the song, given a ana” and “ehehene.” It is no coincidence unique rhythm not repeated anywhere that these two words approach typical else. Although the decriptions of these English laughter sounds, and hard to say other characters as warm and welcoming if everyone is laughing together or the definitely creates a settling effect for the malihini is being laughed at. In either malihini, I think there is also something case, this moment of incoherence invites compelling and mysterious about their speculation and imaginative action on presence that the narrative cannot quite the part of the listener/reader, and hark- explain. For example, when the tropical ing back to Spivak’s work, a potential hula maidens are first introduced, they opening for an ethics of interruption. “seem to dance and croon to a native tune” In the larger context of its performance, [emphasis mine]. There is something un- hapa-haole music as popular dance mu- knowable about them, something again sic had particular force in both settling gestured at in the description of hula as the malihini as well as making (more) “move and sway in that funny way” [em- kinesthetic the possibility of transfor- phasis mine]. mation into kama‘āina. During the early 1900s, hapa-haole music was often

9 Aiko Yamashiro Ethics in Song

Fig. 2. Sol Bright and Johnny Noble, “Kamaaina,” mm. 39-47. Published by Miller Music (1935).

played as dance music performed by a For an example of dance music’s power live band at hotels and country clubs.19 to derail settler insecurity, I want to quote This was the way musicians made mon- a passage at length from the biography ey and achieved popularity. These dance of Johnny Noble (1948) titled Hula Blues. scenes were also where tourists and na- This largely celebratory biography was tives/locals came into regular contact authorized by Noble’s estate, written by with each other and formed relation- Gurre Ploner Noble20—herself a self-pro- ships. Frith explains that “dance mat- claimed (haole) kama‘āina—and printed ters not just as a way of expressing mu- by a small, private press in 1945. Based sic but as a way of listening to it, a way largely on Johnny Noble’s own notes into the music in its unfolding—which for a book about Hawai‘i’s music, Hula is why dancing to music is both a way Blues seeks to teach malihini audiences, of losing oneself in it, physically, and a as suggested by its appendix’s explana- way of thinking about it, hearing it with tory notes on “ancient Hawaiian instru- a degree of concentration that is clearly ments” and Hawaiian poetry and lan- not ‘brainless’” (1996, 142). It is through guage. The following passage describes dance “that we most easily participate in a musical performance at the Moana Pier a piece of music” (1996, 142). This kind by the Waikīkī Beach Boys on a “typical” of bodily connection with dancing music Sunday night in the 1920s: has the potential to amplify the transformative experience of music discussed Nothing is heard but the waves moan- earlier. American tourists, already famil- ing against submerged coral reefs. The iar with the popular entertainment of boys begin to play and to sing, softly, with a gentle breath which seems to do dance halls back home, could easily un- little more than add its obbligato to the derstand, interpret, and interact with the silver voice of the surf. With deep emo- hybrid, danceable hapa-haole music.

10 Ethics in Song

tion their voices rise and fall in unison, song “dies”—registering a serious, ir- and a melody of indescribable beauty revocable loss—the hapa-haole tune is emerges, compelling and sweet, touch- just another song that merely ends, “[w] ing the hearts of every listener. On and ith a burst of laughing harmony.” Turner on it reaches, into the pulsing darkness discusses these kinds of uncomfortable of the tropic night. Like a sigh it fades and dies—the song has ended. gaps or contradictions in the narrative as something settler texts attempt to cover And then, before a word can be spo- over. The gaiety of hapa-haole music as ken, comes a gay hapa-haole tune. The a genre has erased the seriousness, sad- ukuleles and guitars thump out a wild, ness, and strangeness that came before carefree air, young voices are raised in it, enabled listeners to become danc- joyous unrestraint. People smile and ing participants in this happiness, and nod and murmur, tapping their feet to helped them forget the silence that had the intoxicating tempo. Some slip into left them dumbfounded earlier. Though each other’s arms and dance lightly it only tells the story from a malihini per- among the other listeners. With a burst of laughing harmony—another song spective, this example suggests sobering has ended. (Noble 1948, 61) limits to the revolutionary force of interruption, especially considering music’s In this scene, the Hawaiian-language rhetorical force to engage the body and music described in the first paragraph senses and carry them away. harmonizes with its natural surround- A final point, or problem rather: as ings—the surf and the night.21 It belongs discussed earlier, both songs posit mali- to the place. The words “moaning” and hini characters that appear at one level to “pulsing” emphasize the music’s primal be passive and innocent. They are by no quality, a quality that affects its listen- means imposing themselves on unwill- ers emotionally (through the heart), not ing natives. They are simply responding cognitively, thereby sketching a typical (“decently,” as Turner might say) to the colonial representation of the primitive, invitation. However, the natives in each irrational Native. story don’t have any real agency either. Then begins an uncomfortable si- In each story, the malihini speaker is the lence. one narrating the story, and at the end of each song, it is the malihini who ultimate- The listeners are incapable of verbal- ly gets to decide and proclaim that he is izing a reaction or comprehending the now a kama‘āina. Analyzing the invita- strange music that came before. Before tions in these hapa-haole songs in terms the audience can try to make sense of of power and authority suggest that be- that first experience, hapa-haole music coming kama‘āina within the realm of bounds exuberantly into the silence with tourism is based on what Paul Lyons “joyous unrestraint” and now people has described as a colonial situation, in know how to react. They are “intoxi- which the power relation between host cated” with its magic spell, quickly for- and guest is reversed, a situation that can getting the solemn moment that had lead to the guest figuratively and liter- preceded it. The way each song ends is ally taking the host hostage (2006, 12). To particularly telling. While the Hawaiian

11 Aiko Yamashiro Ethics in Song

further complicate matters, though each Retelling settler stories song’s first-person narration ostensibly The hapa-haole song “Haole Hula” speaks from a malihini perspective, the (1928) is an excellent example of how copyrights to these songs were regis- tourism depends on music to be under- tered by a kama‘āina who was also part- stood. The lyrics consist of a list of rea- 22 Hawaiian, Johnny Noble. Why would a sons to love Hawai‘i, and the organiza- kama‘āina take on a malihini persona in tion of the song privileges music as the order to tell a story of triumphant settle- first and foremost reason. The song be- ment? Perhaps the deployment of au- gins with the unnamed narrator recalling thentic native bodies (as writers, singers, different Hawaiian-language songs, both dancers) helped to create even more con- by name and also musically by melodical- 23 vincing lullabies for the uneasy settler. ly capturing that “large intervallic leap” The details of this issue are outside the (which starts on one note and ascends or scope of this paper, but it is important to descends to a different note quite distant note that Turner’s critique of settler nar- on the scale, also characteristic of yodel- ratives, though quite helpful in probing ing) that George Kanahele identifies as a motivations and signs of settler colonial- characteristic of Hawaiian songs (1979, ism in a story, cannot explain the twists 107) This verse encapsulates the force of and turns of authorship and (likely) per- Hawaiian music in the tourist’s experi- formance for these two songs. The scope ence: through radio, records, sheet mu- of Turner’s “Being Colonial/Colonial Be- sic, traveling musicians, or the arrival of ing” is restricted to settler narratives by the steamships to sounds of the Royal settlers. Hawaiian Band at the dock, music was Alongside this recognition of hapa-ha- truly the first story many tourists heard ole music as a coercive embodied experi- of Hawai‘i. ence that can try (and fail) to interrupt it- The land itself is given a musical voice self, we should also recognize that settler – the rain swishes “as it sweeps down the stories themselves are able to circulate valley,” the wind has a “song” and the within both settler and non-settler com- ocean waves “crash” and “hiss.” Emo- munities, opening unexpected possibili- tion becomes something audible that is ties as performer and audience change. expressed and communicated specifical- As folklorist Amy Shuman reminds us, ly through music. The narrator is moved “[s]tories do not exist in isolation, and it to “dance and sing of the charms of Ha- is impossible to prevent a story from be- waii/And from a joyful heart sing Aloha ing appropriated, reinterpreted, and re- to you/In ev‘ry note I’ll tell of the spell of categorized” (19). Can these same (colo- my Islands/For then I know that you’ll nial) arguments and strategies of becom- be in love with them too.” Again, here is ing sometimes lead to more positive and clearly the expectation that the perfor- anticolonial outcomes? Performance, in mance or experience of the song itself particular, can open up drastic retellings can enact a transformation, this falling in of settler narratives, as we will explore in love. the next section.

12 Ethics in Song

The narrator’s own relationship to about Anderson’s family, we might well Hawai‘i is not divulged. All we can de- be right to read this song as fulfilling a duce is that the singer is familiar with settler impulse to lay claim to land and Hawaiian songs, expresses great love for belonging24. In this case, music’s own the land, and refers to this place as “my rhetoric of emotion aligns itself with the Islands.” It is unclear whether the “Hao- rhetoric of emotion that, as Turner points le” of the title refers to the singer or the out, settler narratives can also rely on. “you” addressed. The singer’s message We can also critique this song’s Eng- is decidedly welcoming. The simple, re- lish lyrics as an impoverished translation petitive structure of each verse builds of Hawaiian cultural understanding and up anticipation and expectations that knowledge of land. A defining character- get released in the climactic high note istic of Hawaiian songs and poems is a of the last line under the word “you’ll.” rich and detailed knowledge of place— Through this coalescence of word and every kind of wind and rain and valley melody, the main force of this song is di- has a name and a story, and knowledge rected outwards, likely towards a mali- of these specificities is a mark of being hini or newcomer—one who is haunted kama‘āina to a place.25 We can see an by Hawai‘i, but not yet familiar. Though example of this in the Ho‘oulumāhiehie the words kama‘āina and malihini do not mo‘olelo of Hi‘iakaikapoliopele (origi- come up in this song, I find the relation- nally published in a Hawaiian-lan- ship described between the land and one guage newspaper in installments from familiar, and one unfamiliarssufficient to 1905-1906) in which Pele proves she is be relevant. kama‘āina to Kauai by reciting the names We can easily critique this song as a of over 300 different winds found on the settler text by way of its author’s biog- island (2007, 13-25). The vague and gen- raphy. This song was written by R. Alex eral English words “wind” and “rain” Anderson (1894-1995), one of the most and “cloud” seem feeble in comparison. successful and well-known composers All these ethically charged criticisms of hapa-haole music. His hits include seem to make sense, but we run into a “Lovely Hula Hands,” “Soft Green problem when confronted with the ethos Seas,” and “Mele Kalikimaka.” He was of one later performer of “Haole Hula,” also a third-generation settler whose George Helm (1950-1977). George Helm family directly profited from Hawai‘i’s was a Hawaiian musician and activist colonial and tourism projects. His grand- who was one of the leaders of an orga- father, Alexander Young, was an impor- nization in the 1970s called the Protect tant figure in the sugar plantations, built Kaho‘olawe Ohana. This group fought and opened the Alexander Young Hotel, against the U.S. military’s use of the bought the Royal Hawaiian and Moana island of Kaho‘olawe as a site to test hotels, was a member of the House of bombs and as target practice for live am- Nobles under the Hawaiian Kingdom, munition, a practice that began during and after the illegal overthrow was the WWII and ended in 1990. As Hawaiian Minister of the Interior for the Republic scholar, musician, and activist Jon Osorio (Stone 2003, 16-18). With this knowledge explains, George Helm’s cultural under-

13 Aiko Yamashiro Ethics in Song

standing of the ethics of relationship to as a musician and performer, instilling land dramatically changed the stakes of the value of carefully researching the this atrocity: “George Helm’s leadership meanings and histories of the songs he helped to broaden the scope of the [PKO] chose to play. This discipline and com- movement from the more political issue mitment to history informed Helm’s po- of native lands versus military occupa- litical work too; he often exhorted others tion to a cultural expression of recogniz- to “do your homework” (Morales 1984, ing the land as a living and feeling entity. 13-14). With this knowledge of Helm, we . . With this cultural understanding, Ha- can assume he was very aware of where waiians did not perceive the bombing of “Haole Hula” came from and who wrote Kaho‘olawe as simply wasteful, but rather it, yet chose to perform the song any- as institutionalized torture and murder” way, recording it on a live album in 1976 (1992, 431). As a crucial figure of the Ha- that featured many Hawaiian-language waiian Renaissance of the 1970s,26 Helm songs (including traditional favorites helped reconnect Hawaiians of that time and lesser-known older songs) inter- ( often referred to as the “lost genera- spersed with a handful of English-lan- tion,”) with their culture and identity af- guage songs more explicitly about tour- ter decades in which indigenous history ism—“Waikiki” by Andy Kealoha Cum- and language were forgotten or difficult mings, “Royal Hawaiian Hotel” by Mary to access. Together with the PKO, Helm Robins, and “Haole Hula.” The original spread the use and understanding of the liner notes to this album (released after term “aloha ‘āina,” a concept that can his disappearance) speak of Helm’s deep be translated literally as “love for land,” relationship to his chosen music: but also carries the Hawaiian ethical imperative to care for the land as a family [A]ccording to his close friend ‘Ilima member, and the understanding that the Pi‘ianai‘a . . . . “[Helm’s] appreciation land will reciprocate by caring for you. centered on songs which had been written during the first half of this The phrase also connects with an often century [early 1900s] and embodied underplayed history of Hawaiian nation- what George called ‘Hawaiian Soul’ . . al political resistance in the time of the . [these ellipses in original] The Isaac’s overthrow (Morales 1984, 19-20). George [sic] family (including Alvin Kaleolani Helm and fellow PKO-member Kimo Isaacs, Sr., who wrote one of George’s Mitchell were lost at sea in 1977, after favorite songs, “Emau,” telling of the attempting to rescue some fellow activ- need to preserve Hawaiian traditions), ists who were occupying Kaho‘olawe. To Andy Cummings, David Naope, Al- this day, their disappearances continue fred Alohikea, and Lena Machado to haunt the Hawaiian and Hawaiian na- were among his favorites, and through their Hawaiian Soul he came to under- tionalist communities. stand the political activism, the crying Trained by Kahauanu Lake, George hurt and the unspoken dignity of the Helm was also a musical legend and a Hawaiians of the 1920’s, 1930’s and young master of Hawaiian-language 1940’s. (Masuda 1996) music and the Hawaiian falsetto-style of singing. Lake also taught him integrity

14 Ethics in Song

Helm’s skill and power as a musical per- hold a double (edged) promise of justify- former also proved a powerful force in ing and enacting colonial violence and his activism, often helping him connect also being mobilized for radical change. with people who would normally be put She maps out how and what empathy off by the label “activist.” Besides per- unsettles as follows: forming at purely entertainment ven- ues, Helm also played and sang at po- Empathy is the act of understanding litical rallies, and many stories relate that others across time, space, or any dif- Helm’s music would draw people to ference in experience. Although empathy holds out a great, perhaps the his political and cultural messages infi- greatest, promise of storytelling, it is nitely more effectively than speeches. As at the same time a destabilizing ele- Pi‘ianai‘a writes, “through his music old- ment in storytelling. Empathy relies er Hawaiians were touched in the depths on, but also destabilizes, the associa- of their na‘au, their guts, and understood tion among persons and their experi- what George was about” (1984, 47). Wal- ences. It destabilizes entitlement by ter Ritte, Jr., another leading member of creating the possibility that people can PKO, explains how music in particular legitimately retell each other’s stories. connected Helm with his own cultural It destabilizes meaning from the per- beliefs and identity and allowed Helm to sonal to the allegorical. (2005, 4) share that connection with others: “It was his music which created a neutral space Shuman’s breakdown of empathy ex- for all to come close to the man, George plains that stories that ask listeners to en- Helm. It was his music which allowed ter into a different/strange/new subjec- him to caress his culture. It was his music tivity are vulnerable to appropriation on which allowed us to observe a true Ha- multiple fronts. When taken in conjunc- waiian” [emphases in original] (1984, 73). tion with a critique of settler colonialism, As these examples demonstrate, music we can see that splitting people from their and politics and identity were not sepa- experiences can be understood as a colo- rate for Helm, but necessarily dependant nial tactic—an un-knowing or purpose- on each other. ful forgetting o Native stories and claims on land.27 In a similar vein, Shuman also To discuss Helm’s performance of points out that empathy “rarely changes “Haole Hula,” I would like to briefly the circumstances of those who suffer. If bring up folklorist Amy Shuman’s work it provides inspiration, it is more often on empathy.Narratives that ask listeners for those in the privileged position of em- to identify with an unknown teller are pathizer rather than empathized” (2005, grounded in what Shuman identifies as 5). The previous narrative of hapa-haole the “promise of storytelling”—empathy. music as dance music painfully under- Although Shuman’s work deals specifi- scores, in Shuman’s terms, the “luxury cally with the everyday telling of person- of storytelling” and the relative safety of al stories, not settler stories, her critique the listener (2005, 8). On the other hand, of empathy can help us further under- this same destabilizing energy inherent stand how settler stories and their “wish to stories that evokeempathy can also be to understand across a divide” (2005, 162) channeled into reworking settler narra-

15 Aiko Yamashiro Ethics in Song

tive songs, as we can see in the example “aloha ‘āina.” Becoming kama‘āina, or of George Helm. entering into this knowledge and rela- Conscious and careful with his song tionship with the land, becomes an ethi- choices and quite familiar with the ex- cal imperative re-refigured in the service perience of performing music in a tour- of Hawaiian culture and nationalism. ist setting, George Helm’s choice to perform “Haole Hula” suggests this song’s Coda complicity in a settler colonial project is only one possibility. His particular ethos Far better as a remembrance of Ha- works to recontextualize the song in the waii, than such souvenirs as a pressed service of aloha ‘āina. With this knowl- flower, a piece of lace-like coral, a edge of Helm’s commitment to recon- grass skirt, or a paper lei, is a record of necting other Hawaiians with the idea Hawaiian music, played and sung by Hawaiians. The langorous (sic) Poly- of aloha ‘āina, the welcoming lyrics to nesian melodies with their sweet, so- “Haole Hula” take on new and radical ber cadences, transport the listener to meanings. The lyric’s argument to fall idyllic scenes of tropic loveliness, for in love with Hawai‘i becomes recast as a somewhere deep in the heart of every- political and cultural argument to recog- one is hidden the dream of Paradise— nize the land as not an object or surface, a life spent on a South Sea Island. (No- but as being and family. For Helm to per- ble 1948, 101) form this song, the “I” and “you” built into the song’s lyrics are destabilized, On the particular force of popular mu- shifting from “Anderson” and “tourist/ sic in history, Frith writes, “Pop music newcomer” to “George Helm” and “oth- has been an important way in which we er Native Hawaiians.” In Helm’s record- have learned to understand ourselves as ing of “Haole Hula,” we can hear that he historical, ethnic, class-bound, gendered, performs the last line of the song differ- national subjects . . . . Music certainly puts ently from the way it was originally writ- us in our place, but it can also suggest ten in Anderson’s sheet music. As dis- that our social circumstances are not im- cussed earlier, the highest, most climac- mutable” (1996, 276-7). In a similar vein, tic note originally fell under the word this essay has examined a particular mu- “you’ll,” marking the utmost importance sic’s force in representing Hawai‘i to the and dominance of the malihini in the U.S., codifying damaging touristic ste- kama‘āina-malihini interaction under reotypes, and staging opportunities and the usual tourism-colonial conditions. invitations to change one’s social circum- In Helm’s rendition, however, the end- stance—to become kama‘āina. Music can phrase melody slowly (ritardando, in the get inside of people, can carry them in musical lexicon) builds the entire phrase and out of emotions, and can affect them “you’ll be in love,” shifting the highest bodily. Simultaneously, music relies on note to “love.” This change in musical performance, and bodies can transform rhetoric shifts the emphasis away from and redirect music for new and conflict- “you’ll” in order to emphasize Helm’s ing purposes. Gaining particular power key goal—spreading the message of in this complex medium, the seemingly

16 Ethics in Song

settler colonial promise of becoming and take pride in.28 This idea is champi- kama‘āina and the desire to understand oned most publicly by kumu hula and and claim a place through telling stories Hawaiian rights political activist Vicky can speak to both settler and Native Ha- Takamine and her annual Hapa Haole waiian audiences. The very instabilities Hula, Music, and Film Festival. Accord- of a settler colonial text can open possi- ing to Takamine, “[t]he hapa haole pe- bilities of revolutionary potential. riod served a real purpose . . . . It kept the Hapa-haole music, or “Waikīkī tourist Hawaiian culture alive” (qtd in Drury music,” as I sometimes refer to it when 2003). As explored in this essay, I under- talking colloquially to other people about stand hapa-haole music as an unwieldy this project, has often been dismissed transmitter, a genre that has preserved as embarrassing kitsch, “bereft of sub- cultural values such asthe invitation to stance, as inauthentic as a coconut-shell become kama‘āina, but only by cycling bra” (Drury 2003). As Hawaiian scholar them through multiple translations. Lisa Kahaleole Hall points out, the (over) Popular music is often seen as “harm- marketing of Hawai‘i as kitsch—and she less” and “light,” thereby eluding criti- identifies Tin Pan Alley hapa-haole mu- cism and closer thought. In Adorno’s sic as part of this conception—can have words, it “inclines to smile at itself in or- much more severe consequences: “A cul- der to pass by without being challenged” ture without dignity cannot be conceived (2002 “Social,” 427). He calls for a more of as having sovereign rights, and the rigorous examination of this inocuity as repeated marketing of kitsch Hawaiian- well as efforts to historicize popular mu- ness leads to non-Hawaiians’ misunder- sic in political and economic terms (2002 standing and degradation of Hawaiian “Social,” 425-7.) In the economic and po- culture and history” (2005, 409). The litical context of colonialism, what are the translation of “becoming kama‘āina” into roles emotional, creative, and performa- the medium of hapa-haole music has en- tive popular cultural texts such as music acted a violence of simplification on this play? It is possible to break down this understanding of local identity. Through larger question into many more specific the lyrics and melodies of the songs dis- ones. For example, we could interrogate cussed in this paper, kama‘āina becomes how the requisite humor of hapa-haole an identity open for the taking. Any- music has been used by local and/or Ha- one can become kama‘āina if they want waiian musicians to satirize darker and to, if they love it here. When “becom- more serious political and socioeconom- ing kama‘āina” loses its connotations of ic conditions in song and dance. We can mutual responsibility and emphasis on also think harder about how this music interdependent relationships, it in turn addresses non-white Hawai‘i settlers. becomes an empty shell, too easy to pick As I hope this essay suggests, this de- up and string onto a 99-cent lei. ceptively simple genre is ripe for much There exist small pockets of resistance more work that can reach beneath the in the Hawaiian community that advo- common criticisms of inauthenticity to cate the re-cognition of hapa-haole mu- investigate moments of ethical interrup- sic as a Hawaiian cultural aspect to own tion, instability, and more subtle forms of struggle.

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Notes 6. Wood’s argument about the appropriation of kama‘āina continues to be relevant for contemporary Hawai‘i scholars. For ex- 1. I am very grateful to Paul Lyons, Jeff Car- ample, see ku‘ualoha ho‘omanawanui’s es- roll, John Zuern, Cristina Bacchilega, John say “‘This Land is Your Land, This Land Was Rieder, Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada, and my My Land’: Kanaka Maoli versus Settler Rep- anonymous reviewer for their thoughtful resentations of ‘Āina in Contemporary Lit- feedback on this paper at various points in erature of Hawai‘i” from the 2008 collection the writing process. Any errors that remain entitled Asian Settler Colonialism. This paper are entirely my own. does not contest the usefulness of his work 2. See Strains of Change: The Impact of Tourism in documenting examples of colonialism, but on Hawaiian Music by Elizabeth Tatar (1995), does suggest that the question of the cultural “Hawaiians on Tour: Hula Circuits Through permeability of kama‘āina bears more scru- the American Empire” by Adria Imada (2004), tiny. and Struggling to Define a Nation: American 7. The ‘ōlelo no‘eau are from the book pub- Music and the Twentieth Century by Charles lished by Mary Kawena Pukui in 1983. She Hiroshi Garrett (2008). collected them as a personal project over 3. Two very successful musical performances decades of being an important and prolific are often cited as beginning this fascination translator, editor, composer of mele, writer, with Hawaii—the 1912 debut of the Hawai- and archivist for the Bishop museum. 2942 ian musical The Bird of Paradise in New York were published in the book, but she knew and the performance of the song “On the many more (Luomala 1999). Beach at Waikiki” at the 1915 Panama-Pacific 8. And linguistically, the prefix “ho‘o” can Exposition in San Francisco. For more on both mean to behave like x. For example, ho‘okane of these events, see Charles Hiroshi Garrett’s would mean to behave like a man (kane). chapter “Sounds of Paradise” in Struggling to Define a Nation: American Music and the Twen- 9. The State of Hawai‘i itself is often identi- tieth Century. fied as an existing settler colonial project, dominated largely by Asian settlers, “locals,” 4. Following popular convention in Hawai‘i, who trace their lineage to Hawai‘i’s immi- I use “Hawaiian,” “Native,” or “Native Ha- grant plantation workers. See Asian Settler waiian” to signify an indigenous Hawaiian Colonialism: From Local Governance to the Hab- identity and “Hawai‘i” as an adjective to sig- its of Everyday Life in Hawai‘i, edited by Can- nify a local, but non-Native identity. dace Fujikane and Jonathan Y. Okamura. 5. Wood also talks at length about the devel- 10. The well-worthwhile project of writing a oping usage of a “kama‘āina style” of home detailed geneaology of kama‘āina is outside décor that fetishizes “Native lifeways into a the scope of this paper. collection of discrete Native crafts” that can be collected and owned, divorced from use 11. Though Lévinas’s argument focuses on and history. Though outside the scope of this high art and on critiquing the argument of particular paper, this particular understand- “art for art’s sake” rather than popular mu- ing of kama‘āina is alive and well today, as sic, his comments on rhythm are made more evidenced by a 2002 Honolulu magazine ar- generally. ticle titled “Kama‘āina Style” that asserts the 12. Tin Pan Alley songwriters capitalized on possibility “for a home to have kama‘āina the “Hawaii Craze,” making Waikīkī and style without necessarily being in the is- hula girls the focus of scores of songs. See lands.” Charles Hiroshi Garrett’s chapter “Sounds of Paradise” in Struggling to Define a Nation: American Music and the Twentieth Century for a detailed look at this.

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13. A stipulation—Spivak also discusses the in Hawai‘i’s tourist industry, present might- necessity of education and training in form- ily complex examples of how one must have ing an active (ethical) reader, and the very had to negotiate conflicting identity politics real difficulties of this kind of education for to be successful. poor and illiterate communities. 23. See Jane Desmond’s discussion of bodies 14. Both these songs are connected in some and tourism in Staging Tourism: Bodies on dis- way to filmmakers Norman Foster and Frank play from Waikiki to Sea World. Borzage. The question of whether or not these 24. My aim here is not to disparage Anderson songs were being marketed for film bears fur- or his family, but to make the point that well- ther study, and points to larger questions of meaning critiques of settler colonialism can the relationships between musical and filmic easily oversimplify situations. representation of Hawai‘i. 25. See Nā Mele o Hawai‘i Nei by Samuel El- 15. I could find no recordings of these songs bert and Noelani Mahoe for a discussion of or mention of them outside of their own sheet the aesthetic of Hawaiian poetry. music. 26. The Hawaiian Renaissance was a cultural 16 Turner is specifically referring to Michael and political reclaiming of Hawaiian knowl- King’s book, Being Pakeha. edge and rights. Some of the most oft-cited 17. My thanks to Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada for events include the successful rebuilding and his assistance on this translation and for his voyaging of Hawaiian canoe Hokule‘a, the generous help on other Hawaiian-language work towards establishing Hawaiian-lan- issues in this paper. guage immersion schools, and the PKO it- 18. See Charles Hiroshi Garrett for a discus- self. sion on Tin Pan Alley’s fascination and dis- 27. Or “ignorance.” See Paul Lyons’s Ameri- regard for the Hawaiian language, as well as can Pacificism: Oceania in the U.S. Imagination examples of parodic anti-Hawai‘i songs from (2006) for an excellent discussion and analyt- Tin Pan Alley. ical use of this term in a colonial context. 19. Another excellent project for further re- 28. According to the Honolulu Weekly article search could examine the specifics of how ha- by Drury, hapa-haole music really lost popu- pa-haole music functioned as dance music. larity in the 1970s, as the Hawaiian cultural 20. No relation to Johnny Noble. renaissance of that time pushed the focus 21. What kind of music did the hapa-haole onto Hawaiian-language materials and ear- dance music replace? In an article by John- lier histories. In talking with other Hawaiian ny Noble published in Paradise of the Pacific scholars, they tell me that little work is cur- in 1944, he describes the beach boy music at rently being done on the Territorial period, Moana Pier as including both songs like “Alo- with much more emphasis being placed on ha Means I Love You” and (likely Hawaiian- the Kingdom era, annexation and overthrow, language) songs by Hawaiian royalty Queen and statehood. Lili‘uokalani, King Kalākaua and Prince Leleiōhoku. It is likely that this scene written earlier by Johnny Noble was reworked by Gurre Ploner Noble for the book. 22. Johnny Noble is also credited with com- posing both songs, although he shares the “words and music” credit in “Kamaaina” with Sol Bright. Both these individuals’ lives, as Hawaiians and significant musical figures

19 Aiko Yamashiro Ethics in Song

Works Cited Frith, Simon. 1996. Performing rites: On the value of American popular Adorno, Theodor. 2002. On popular music. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard music. Essays on music: Selected, University Press. with introduction, commentary, and Hall, Lisa Kahaleole. 2005. “Hawaiian notes by Richard Leppert. Susan H. at heart” and other fictions. The Gillespie et. al, trans. Los Angeles: Contemporary Pacific.17.2: 404-413. University of California Press, Helm, George. 1996. “Haole Hula.” 437-69. The music of George Helm—A Adorno, Theodor. 2002. On the Social true Hawaiian. Rec. 1977. Cord Situation of Music. Essays on International, 1996. CD. music: Selected, with introduction, Ho‘oulumāhiehie. 2007. The epic tale of commentary, and notes by Richard Hi‘iakaikapoliopele. Trans. Puakea Leppert. Susan H. Gillespie et. al, Nogelmeier. Honolulu: Awaiaulu trans. Los Angeles: University of Press. California Press, 391-436. Kanahele, George, ed. 1979. Hawaiian Anderson, R. Alex. 1971. “Haole Hula.” music and musicians: An illustrated (1928). R. Alex Anderson’s famous history. Honolulu: University of songs of Hawaii. Honolulu: Alex Hawai‘i Press, 1979. Anderson Music Inc. Lévinas, Emmanuel. 2004. Reality and Bright, Sol & Johnny Noble. 1935. its shadow. Unforeseen history. “Kamaaina.” Johnny Noble’s book of By Lévinas. Trans. Nidra Poller. famous Hawaiian melodies: Including Urbana: University of Illinois hulas and popular standards. New Press, 76-91. York: Miller Music Co. Luomala, Katarine. 1999. A bibliographic Drury, Kathryn. 2003. It lives! Once left for survey of collections of Hawaiian dead, hapa-haole music attracts sayings. De Proverbio: Electronic new interest. Journal of International Proverb Honolulu Weekly. 13 Aug. http://www. Studies. 5.2: n.pag. http://www. honoluluweekly.com/archives/ deproverbio.com/DPjournal/ coverstory%202003/08-13-03%20 DP,5,2,99/LUOMALA/ Hapa/08-13-03%20Hapa.html. HAWAIIAN.html. (accessed 22 (accessed 20 Nov 2008). Oct 2009). Eperjesi, John. 2005. Becoming Hawaiian: Lyons, Paul. 2006. American Pacificism: Jack London, cultural tourism, Oceania in the U.S. imagination. and the myth of Hawaiian New York: Routledge. exceptionalism. The imperialist MacCannell, Dean. 1976. The Tourist: A imaginary: Visions of Asia and New Theory of the Leisure Class. the Pacific in American culture. New York: Schocken Books. Hanover, NH: University Press of Masuda, Melvin. 1996. Liner Notes. New England, 105-29. The music of George Helm—A Everybody knows this live wire. 1917. true Hawaiian. Rec. 1977. Cord Paradise of the Pacific.May, 15-16. International. CD.

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Morales, Rodney. 1984. George Helm— Ritte, Jr., Walter. 1984. George Helm—A The voice and soul. Ho‘i Ho‘i Hou: true Hawaiian. Ho‘i Ho‘i Hou: A tribute to George Helm & Kimo A Tribute to George Helm & Kimo Mitchell. Ed. Rodney Morales. Mitchell. Ed. Rodney Morales. Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge Press, Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge Press, 10-32. 73. Noble, Gurre Ploner. 1948. Hula Blues; Shuman, Amy. 2005. Other people’s stories: The story of Johnny Noble, Hawaii, Entitlement claims and the critique its music and musicians. Honolulu: of empathy. Chicago: University of Tongg Publishing Co. Illinois Press. Noble, Johnny. 1935. “I’m Not a Malihini Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 2002. Ethics Anymore.” Johnny Noble’s book of and politics in Tagore, Coetzee, famous Hawaiian Melodies: Including and certain scenes of teaching. hulas and popular standards. New Diacritics. 32.3-4: 17-31. York: Miller Music Co. Stone, Scott C.S. 2003. From a joyful Ohnuma, Keiko. 2008. “Aloha spirit” and heart: The life and music of R. Alex the cultural politics of sentiment Anderson. Waipahu, HI: Island as national belonging. The Heritage Publishing. Contemporary Pacific.20.2: 365-94. Trask, Haunani-Kay. 1999. “Lovely Hula Osorio, Jonathan Kamakawiwo‘ole. Hands”: Corporate tourism and 1992. Songs of our natural selves: the prostitution of Hawaiian The enduring voice of nature in culture. From a native daughter; Hawaiian music. Pacific History: Colonialism and sovereignty in Papers from the 8th Pacific History Hawai‘i, revised edition. Honolulu: Association Conference. Ed. Donald University of Hawai‘i Press, 136- H. Rubenstein. Mangilao, Guam: 47. University of Guam Press, 429-32. Turner, Stephen. 2002. Being colonial/ Pi‘ianai‘a, ‘Ilima. 1984. George Helm. colonial being. Journal of New Ho‘i Ho‘i Hou: A Tribute to George Zealand Literature. 20: 39-66. Helm & Kimo Mitchell. Ed. Rodney Wood, Houston. 1999. Displacing natives: Morales. Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge The rhetorical production of Hawai‘i. Press, 47-49. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Pukui, Mary Kawena and Samuel H. Littlefield. Elbert. 1957. Hawaiian dictionary. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. Pukui, Mary Kawena, ed. 1983. ‘Ōlelo no‘eau: Hawaiian proverbs & poetical sayings. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press.

21 Aiko Yamashiro Ethics in Song Response

A second key dimension is the way Emplacement, Entrainment, that hapa-haole music becomes, to use Empathy, and Ethics Yamashiro’s (2) own phrase, “entirely captivating.” In other words, how do its Don Brenneis rhythmic and other acoustic characteristics compel listeners’ engagement? Key University of California, Santa Cruz here is the notion of “entrainment,” of USA being pulled into participation through “the embodied experience of musical structure.” (2) Are the pleasurable senso- iko Yamashiro’s thought-provok- ry dimensions of listening to Hapa-Haole ing “Ethics in Song” takes Hapa- music more or less automatic, unreflec- Haole music into serious and tive responses to rhythm, as Lévinas and Aimaginative account - and to very good Adorno fear; or are they the product of ends. She considers this apparently light a more explicitly thought-full participa- popular music as a key site for claims- tion, as Frith (discussed by Yamashiro) making and contestation, one in which argues for dance music? Either way, style we can hear the resonances of such con- and form matter alongside text - and can sequential themes as identity, indigene- profoundly shape experience, either will- ity, personhood, and moral value. She ingly or as an unmediated reflex. further argues and elegantly demon- Perhaps the most complex terrain Ya- strates that the meanings, uses, and lin- mashiro explores here is that of ethics, gering effects of such music are not static a term that takes on multiple meanings but rather reverberate in multiple and over the course of her essay. One cluster dynamic ways in today’s Hawai’i and of meanings centers around the ethics beyond. In this brief response I want to of whether and how one can claim indi- highlight three dimensions of her subtle geneity: Does Native status come only exploration of hapa-haole music. through birth, or can one legitimately First, the texts of hapa-haole music fo- “become Native?” Yamashiro’s consid- cus on making oneself at home in a spe- eration of hapa-haole music suggests an cific place, a theme shared by mainland ethical ideology in which “it is not only country music and by its highly varied possible to become kama’āina, one ought offspring worldwide. Such lyrical place- to,” (3) a position clearly contrary to the making, accomplished through naming, view of many indigenous activists. describing, and narrating, is integrally A second way in which ethics figures linked with making ethical claims to lo- in this popular music has to do with cal identity, whether for indigenous com- its reception and effects. Here Lévinas’ munities or for settlers and their descen- troubled assumption that “subjects [can dents. The work of such scholars as Aar- be] seized by rhythm and carried away” on Fox, David Samuels, and Alexander (quoted by Yamashiro, 5) is central. For Dent on various world country musics him and Adorno (for whom the entraining resonates with Yamashiro’s argument dangers of such music lie more in its here. predictability and standardization) ethics

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depends upon consciousness, agency, While empathy and sympathy differ in and reasoned consent, characteristics significant ways, a similar dynamic may imperiled by the formal features of be at play here. What bridges have been popular song. In Yamashiro’s account, built by hapa-haole music? How do they Gayatri Spivak argues for the generative find purchase at either end? And what and resistant possibilities of interruption, kinds of traffic – aesthetic, personal, that is, of “refocalizing” (6) a text. But, political – move across them? Spivak’s argument draws directly upon the themes and content of narratives Work Cited rather than their style; can the shape Rai, Amit S. 2002. Rule of Sympathy: of hapa-haole sound also afford the Sentiment, Race, and Power, 1750- potential for such interruptions? 1850. New York: Palgrave. For me the most suggestive constellation of questions has to do with the ethics of empathy and entitlement that figure centrally in Yamashiro’s astute use of Amy Shuman’s recent work. We often regard “empathy” as an admirable and ethical capacity, one allowing understanding across difference. At the same time, however, Shuman notes that it “relies on, but also destabilizes, the associations among persons and their experiences.” (quoted by Yamashiro, 15) Are the narratives of subjective transformation central to hapa-haole songs an ethical violation of the entitlements, narrative or otherwise, of Native Hawaiians? Thinking through the complexities of empathy suggests a more complex and nuanced way of thinking about such processes as cultural appropriation. It also speaks directly to broader aspects not only of settler societies specifically but of colonialism as well. As Amit S. Rai (2002) convincingly demonstrates in his Rule of Sympathy: Sentiment, Race, and Power, 1750-1850, the sentiment of sympathy can claim simultaneously to bridge human difference and to provide a powerful engine of social differentiation as well as, at least implicitly, a mandate for control.