Photo credit: G.J. Suzuki
Following decades of immigration and oppression by foreigners, the Hawaiian monarchy attempted to raise the people’s spirits—if not increase actual population numbers—through a series of events, laws, and organizations designed for just that purpose. This first effort at a “Hawaiian Renaissance” began in the 1860s and flourished in the 1870s and ‘80s, but stalled after the overthrow of the monarchy in 1893. Following Hawai`i’s Statehood in 1959, a second “Renaissance” of native culture and politics blossomed in the 1960s and proliferated in the 1970s and ‘80s, with new events, laws, and organizations created to promote culture and sovereignty for Hawaiians in their homeland. Historian Boyd D. Bond guides us through this maze of events tonight and examines where the modern movement has taken us thus far.
