Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 3, 1 March 2006 — Made in Hawaiʻi [ARTICLE]

Made in Hawaiʻi

All over the world, but especially in Ainerica, eheap products coming off assembly lines spew forth "Made in Hawai'i" products designed to soothe tourists' senses onee they arrive back home with all their "authentic Hawaiian" gifts for their relatives, friends, coworkers and neighbors. They open their suitcases, and what do they see? Bolts of cloth with designs found only in Hawai'i. They put their eheap dancing hula doll on their dashboard and watch her hounee with every vibration. They put on their seat cover, whieh bears an "authentic Hawaiian design,"

so their 'ōkole feels more comfortable. They break out the eheap plastic hula skirt for their neighbor's little girl, so she ean attempt our native dance while grandma oohs and aahs with the video camera. They watch coworkers debate who gets the Hawaiian pineapple chunks or the "authentic Hawaiian" macadamia nuts. They impress their boss with eheap plastic leis for all the office workers, as they all clamor for the one with the most authentic Hawaiian colors. They give their girlfriend's oldest boy an authentic Hawaiian mahiole to hang from his rear-view mirror. Or they just save the boxes that say "Made In Hawai'i," so they ean fondly remember how they kicked back

alongside a $200-$300-a-night Hihon Hotel swiimning pool (probably built over a Hawaiian burial site or sacred heiau), just a few feet away from the vast Pacific oeean. All the while they don't understand why these seemingly happy, barefoot, brown-skinned people would care that everything that tourists think is a product of Hawai'i is actually a travesty of everything Native Hawaiians hold dear to their culture. "But we are all Americans," they say. "Shouldn't these people be grateful that I spent my vacation money on their products?" William Kalamakuaikalani DeBolt Via the lnternet

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