Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 39, Number 1, 1 Ianuali 2022 — Cultural Misrepresentation on TikTok [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Cultural Misrepresentation on TikTok

V KA LEO O NA 'OPIO V ^ VOICE OF THE YOUTH *

By Madison Velasco, Grade 7 Kamehameha Schools Kapālama TikTok is one of the most downloaded mohile apps today. Many opio (and mākua) enjoy watching dancing videos, funny moments, scary content, and more. However, there is a portion of TikTok that has informational videos on a wide range of topics. One of them being about Hawai'i and Hawaiian history. A lot of the content being shared about Hawai'i is about our gods, our culture and our food. It is important to note that many of the people posting these things are not from Hawai'i. When asked about where they got their information, they say they learned about it from their friends who vacationed here in Hawai'i. These people who talk about our culture on TikTok have spread false information about Hawai'i and have unintentionally (or intentionally) mocked our culture and traditions. This is harmful to us as a people because they are romanticizing and reducing our culture to party favors. When false information is shared, people who know nothing about us will think that Hawai'i is a plaee that has no real history when that's the exact opposite. When people eome here and believe that they know everything because a person on the internet said it was true, it really revokes the meaning and signifieanee of our traditions. Another harmful thing about

these stories on the internet is that they wipe away a part of our history. They talk about how pretty and perfect Hawai'i is, yet they don't know that our Queen was wrongfully imprisoned and overthrown. Or they think hula is just some dance where you swing your arms like waves and shake your hips. They don't know that hula was forbidden and our kūpuna were forced to leave their eulture behind because foreigners deemed it inappropriate for them to showcase their mo'olelo through dance.

This still from a TikTok video shows on individuol dressed as "Lilo" (from Lilo & Stich) ottempting to dance the hulo. We've been silent for too long and we've allowed others to tell our stories for us. We've let them shift the narrative and that time of us being silent must stop now. We, as Hawaiians, should be using platforms like TikTok to showcase our stories instead of letting our colonizers do it for us. By telling our mo'olelo in our own way, we ean ensure that non-Hawaiians (who know nothing about us) aren't spreading falsehoods about our heritage. TikTok ean be used as a tool to properly educate people about who we are as a lāhui - and we must take advantage of this opportunity now. ■ Madison Velasco is from Pauoa, O'ahu