Polynesian

Hawaii’s dream of Polynesian empire

clusive Destiny: The Inter nationalist Movement in Mod em Hawaii. By Paul F. Hooper.

Published by the University Press of Hawaii Honolulu.

Susis. Isbn 0 8248 0631 X.

In 1851 Charles St Julian, an Australian newspaper reporter, wrote to the Hawaiian govern ment requesting a commission as Hawaii’s representative to Polynesia. He wanted no less than to help create a Polynesian confederation, with Hawaii as its leader.

Kamehameha 111 and his foreign minister, Robert C.

Wyllie, seriously considered St Julian’s proposal. For a few years they flirted with St Julian, encouraging his efforts to forge links with Tonga, Samoa, and the Stewart Islands.

Nothing ever came of them.

But Kamehameha 111 and Wyllie were neither the first nor the last in Hawaii’s royal

governments to dream of a larger role for Hawaii in the Pacific.

Legend has it that at the beginning of the 19th century Kamehameha I considered an invasion of Tahiti. At the cen

tury’s end, Kalakaua actually

launched the Kaimiloa, the

kingdom’s only warship, on a

voyage to Samoa. His purpose was to demonstrate support for a recently concluded treaty of confederation between the two

Polynesian peoples. Unfor

tunately, the German navy was already in Samoa. So much for Kalakaua’s version of a

Polynesian confederation.

In Elusive Destiny: The In ternationalist Movement in Modern Hawaii Paul Hooper follows the internationalist vision of Hawaii’s leaders from its origins with the Hawaiian royalty to its insti tutionalisation in the East- West Center, and the various programmes of the University of Hawaii.

It has been a delicate and often tenuous vision, but it has persisted. For over a century and a half, one Hawaiian leader or another has pushed to establish a role of consequence for the islands in the inter national affairs of the Pacific Basin.

During Hawaii’s territorial period, the Islands’ social and economic leaders gave their support to two organisations designed to further under standing between the United States, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. First the Pan-Pacific Union and then the Institute of Pacific Relations held con-

Terences and published journals on matters related to the Pacific.

Following World War 11, government seized the inter nationalist initiative from pri vate patrons. John A. Burns,

delegate to Congress and

Governor of Hawaii from 1962 to 1974, brought the East-West Center to Honolulu and allo cated state tax dollars to

developing the university into

one of the world’s great centres for Pacific research.

Hooper does more in Elusive Destiny than tell the story of Hawaii’s internationalist leaders. He questions their mo tivation. Why would the leaders of a small group of islands seek such a pivotal role for themselves within the Pa cific?

He finds the answer in the literature, art, and advertising of Hawaii. He posits the paradisal myth, the belief that Hawaii, through conditions of climate and the varied racial composition of its inhabitants,

is unique, a meeting place for

Pacific peoples in the most

delightful of settings.

Elusive Destiny began as a doctoral dissertation. Unfor

tunately Hooper’s writing style

still displays the characteristics of that genre. Hooper qualifies too much. Multi-clausal sen tences muddy his prose.

The result is tough going for the general reader. But students of modern Hawaii will find in Elusive Destiny the first attempt to deal comprehen sively with the island’s most persistent intellectual tradition.

Dan Boylan.