Neel Patel
Professor Naomi Taub
Rhetoric 105 F6
14 September 2015

Hawaiian Empowerment: A Native’s Point of View In “From a Native Daughter,” writer, activist, and Native Hawaiian academic, Haunani-Kay Trask recounts her personal feelings along with her people’s feelings with how the ‘haole’ (white) people overwhelmed and distorted the historical context of the native Hawaiian inhabitants. Trask’s purpose is to convey the message that the native Hawaiians’ ancient culture is described as oppressive and tyrannical by white historians, rather that it was a society that functioned efficiently before the Europeans seized the land. She adopts an affectionate yet blunt tone throughout the course of the selection in order to contend the principles about the Hawaiian people to the Western world.
Trask launches her exposition by highlighting how she gains much of her knowledge of her ancestry and people from her family and by expressing early on that she learned about how the whites took over her people. She appeals to her ethos and credibility by telling her audience, “I learned about the life of the old ones –and they had flourished” (Trask 113) and that her “mother said Hawaiians had sailed over thousands of miles to make their home in these sacred islands (Trask 113).” She makes these claims regarding her mother and people in order to express that she is experienced on this topic from her first-hand encounters and her Ph.D. knowledge. Soon after establishing her dominance with a high level of experience, Trask reveals to her audience that what historians claimed to have happened in her land and what the native people of Hawaii describe are on opposite spectrums. By calling the natives’ chiefs as oppressive and authoritarian, they assumed the people were miserable, which was the opposite. This outpouring of arguments made by Trask conveys a confident tone in her message and what she is presenting to the audience is indeed credible. She is trying to convince the readers that Hawaiians are and were exceptional before the European people came in and took over their land.
As her story continues on, Trask shifts her focus to describing Europeans as a whole by degrading the European methods that were integrated on the Hawaiian society and expanding upon the coined term ‘feudalism’ as contrived by the Europeans as well. She constructs a striking tone through the use of repetition of the word “European.” This rhetorical strategy allows her argument to become more powerful because she is allowing the term “European” to be seen in a negative context by telling the reader Europeans disturbed the peace in Hawaii. As she continues to use the word, Trask degrades it in her following sentences. While speaking poorly upon how the Europeans characterized the “[Hawaiian] chiefs as feudal landlord and our people as serfs” (Trask 115), Trask was attacking white historians to show that “Europeans” are the ones misrepresenting the Hawaiian people on who they are. The repetition in this paragraph sets a contending point that white historians are distorting who the Hawaiian people were and that they were flourishing.
Furthermore, Trask’s research of ancient Hawaiian history supports her use of logos. She provides factual dates of when the white historians placed certain events in Hawaii and those dates of when the Hawaiians placed them. One notable claim she makes is that the genealogical dating the Hawaiians used is more accurate than the historians claims that show dates 700 years later. These are dating systems based upon the word-of-mouth stories and songs that Hawaiians used. They provide certain time periods which help the Hawaiians know their history. This appeal to logos helps convey her message that the truth behind the pagan Hawaiians is concealed by the white historian point of view. As the chapter continues, she has been highly influenced throughout her life that historians have been accurate on who the Hawaiians used to be. “This was the West’s view of itself through the degradation of her own past” (Trask 117). The argument she makes here channels her turning point in the article to bluntly declare that she has been seeing her history from the wrong perspective. Her very little use of logos throughout her selection enabled her audience to start trusting her main argument and persuaded readers to see her point of view. This is due to the high regard of oral traditions and ways of knowing that the Hawaiians were pronoun for.
The author moves to her actual realization that she has been misunderstood her entire lifetime along with the Western world by extending her vocabulary and appealing to emotional diction. These are seen clearly through “’aina” meaning culture and “the great bloodiness of memory: genealogy” (Trask 118). These few examples show how her language is connecting with the audience on an emotional level by using native terms and powerful language such as “bloodiness.” She appeals to the ideals of pathos by employing meaningful words when describing the traits of her people. She explains how her people had “inseparable bonds” and the “flowering of songs” (Trask 118). The language is powerful because she provides a sense of hope to the audience by describing these sentimental values to her audience. Additionally, the sense of strong culture by Hawaiian people, which includes when Trask described their history through the use of songs, provides an alley way for connection between the audience and writer. Readers tend to feel like bridges have been built when they are interested in such a valuable culture that the Hawaiians had. The readers feel more connected because they are reading something that most other people say is wrong. Historians believe that ancient Hawaiians were miserable until the Europeans came, but Trask has provided enough evidence to give them the sense of hope that they are wrong. This was enough to convince her audience to believe her.
In the book, Haunani-Kay Trask explains the meaning to a specific song that is close to her culture. The author combines her application of pathos and logos by bestowing an Ancient Hawaiian song “that was written in 1983 and tells of Hawaiian our homeland as well as our feelings against annexation to the United States” (Trask 119). The song creates an emotional diction in her song by describing crowning their queen and provides a piece of factual evidence to the reader. “We do not value the government’s sums of money, we are satisfied with the stones, astonishing food for the land. We support Lili’uokalani, who has earned the right to the land” (Trask 119). She presents the sacred song in order to discuss citizen empowerment of the Hawaiians and the preservation of their history. In the song it describes that the Ancient Hawaiian people were extremely happy with the land that they occupied by telling the reader they “cling steadfastly to the land” and are “the people that love the land (Trask 119). This song conveys that the Hawaiians genuinely were pleasant and that it was a mistake for the white people to seize their lands. She wants the reader to believe that this is actually how the Hawaiians lived beforehand and that they were completely and utterly pleasant. I believe she accomplishes her goal by providing the reader with enough evidence, personal anecdotes, and a sacred song to value her argument.
In a supplementary text to “From a Native Daughter,” the text “Lovely Hula Hands” also by Haunani Kay Trask suggests a deeper analysis of the Hawaiian oppression towards the whites. The text explains the sheer ignorance that Americans and Europeans have to Hawaii’s rich culture, sacred history, and political spectrum. “I would imagine that most Americans could not place Hawaii or any other Pacific island on a map” (Trask 1) suggests that Americans are simply using Hawaii for its beauty and not knowing anything about their people. The theme of white people not understanding the Hawaiian people seems to be present in both the articles. Differently, in “Lovely Hula Hands” the message is much clearer to the audience by explicitly stating that Americans are ignorant and they do not understand Hawaiian history, whereas in “From a Native Daughter” Trask uses different techniques and complex appeals such as song excerpts and emotional diction to convey her message. Both texts effectively inform the reader that there is a sense of ignorance toward Hawaii in terms of their history. When Trask says that the native people were not oppressed when the Europeans seized land, she believes that people outside the Pacific simply do not understand the pain that Hawaiians go through knowing that nobody knows their history. In one of her closing statements in “Lovely Hula Hands,” Trask informs people that “if you are thinking of vising my homeland, please don’t…If you want to help our cause, pass this message on” (Trask 1). She concludes her argument by persuading people to understand her history before they take over her land. Both texts show the same sense of exigency, the Hawaiian culture is a culture of distinct characteristics and for the Europeans to have taken that away from them creates a dilemma for the indigenous people to this day. To put in perspective, wouldn’t you care if other people said inaccurate statements regarding your past?
“From a Native Daughter” explains how Europeans changed how the land was used and inevitably, the Hawaiian Islands have never been the same. In an article by Robert Reinhold called “Hawaii is Rethinking its Dependency on Tourism,” he describes that tourism in Hawaii is not doing as well as the old agricultural society was doing. One article refers to the societal change while the other strictly due to the change in economy. The similar theme and message that the two articles show readers is that change for Hawaii, whether societal or economical, seems to be hurting the people. In Trask’s book, she persuades the reader that ever since Europeans took the land, the Hawaiian people have felt more oppressed and resentful than ever. This was due to a societal change that is still affecting people today. Similarly, the economic change “plantation agriculture to world-class resort” landscaped Hawaii to what we know today (Reinhold 1). But what we all still don’t know is the Hawaiian culture that lies beneath all of this and that is what Trask ultimately wants us to do.
Trask effectively uses rhetorical appeals such as ethos, logos, and pathos to push her standpoint that her people were not dysfunctional and lazy. The writer creates a motivating diction through the use of repetition in her book which creates a motivating tone to keep her audience intrigued and attentive throughout the reading. The reading is aimed predominantly towards white folk because they are the ones who put a label on the Hawaiian people. This book provides them an opportunity to realize what they had taken from the Hawaiian people and that their history is different from that of what historians proclaim. Trask makes her audience doubt their belief on who the Hawaiian people were before the Europeans came in since it is a different story when the natives tell it. She creates trust when she relates to the audience by providing personal examples, such as listening to ancient songs that describe her people. Her similarities in purpose with her article “Lovely Hula Hands” shows that people should sooner or later respect and discern Hawaiian history.

Works cited
Reinhold, Robert. “Hawaii is Rethinking Its Dependency on Tourism.” The New York Times, January 2, 1993. Web.
Trask, Haunani-Kay. “From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaii.” University of Hawaii Press, 1999. Print.
Trask, Haunani-Kay. “Lovely Hula Hands.” Pacific Islander Writers. Manjioca:Uma Brasilian. 12 September 2008. Web. 24 October 2015.