Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 6, 1 June 2010 — Native Hawaiian scholar wins prestigious award [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Native Hawaiian scholar wins prestigious award

By Jennifer Armstrong KaWai Ola

As an aspiring young Hawaiian scholar, Dr. Noelani Arista sought her education beyond the shores of home. Now her hard work coupled with the support of academic programs have rewarded her with a prestigious honor for the best-written doctoral dissertation on an American subject. She was presented the Allan Nevins Prize by

the Society of American Historians on April 10 at the Organization of American Historians Conference in Washington, D.C. Arista is a University of Hawai'i at Mānoa assistant professor in history and a 2008 Mellon-Hawai'i Doctoral Fellow. With extensive experience in both Hawaiian and English newspaper archives, Arista is an experienced and published translator with a doctorate degree in American history from Brandeis University and a master's degree in religion from UH-Mānoa. She was

among the first group in the Mel-lon-Hawai'i Fellowship Program in 2009. The program supports Native Hawaiian scholars who are early in their academic careers and others who are committed to the advancement of scholarship on Hawaiian cultural and natural environments, Hawaiian history, politics and society. Robert Lindsey Jr., chairman of the Fellowship's Senior Advisory Board and an OHA trustee, said: "The granting of the Allan Nevins History Prize for the best doctoral disser-

tation on an American subject validates our interest in supporting the development of intellectual leadership from Hawai'i - for Hawai'i and the world. It is extremely rewarding to see young Hawaiian thinkers and writers enliven the academy with the vitality of indigenous perspectives and indigenous scholarship." In the 50-year history of the prize, Arista's dissertation is the first pieee to have won that was written by a native person and focused on native history. Arista's dissertation, "Histories of Unequal Measure: Euro-American Encounters with the Hawaiian Governance and Law 1793-1827," focuses on the early connections between Hawai'i and New England and addresses questions of law and jurisdiction. While writing this history, Arista took on the many burdens of finishing a dissertation while intimately enduring the subject matter. "The 'ōlelo of our kūpuna are not simply artifacts to be cherished, honored and venerated, but 'ōlelo that we of succeeding generations need to engage in order to reinvigorate their knowledge, to bring it centrally back into our everyday lives," Arista said in an e-mail. The Allan Nevins Prize is named in honor of the Society of American Historians' founder and first president. As the prize-winning essay, this groundbreaking work will be considered for publication as a book by a distinguished academic press house. "This means that the history I wrote will take its plaee next to political histories of Great Britain or histories of the Civil War and slavery," said Arista. "History of early Hawaiian contact and negotiations between ali'i, missionaries, ship captains and consuls will not be marginalized. Rather it will go straight into the mainstream of historical discourse," she added. In her years of study, Arista credits the mentorship and knowledge of many people who have helped her research and write the history. "This process reinforced the importance of my fellow students, my friends and my 'ohana, for without their help there was no way to accomplish this work," she said. ■

Dr. Noelani Arista, center, with her adviser, Dr. Jane Kamensky, and Dr. David Engermanfrom Brandeis Universityatthe Allan Nevins Prize Dinner in Washington, D.C. - Photo: Courfew of Noe Arktn _ -