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Actualité de la recherche

Journée d’études : Brandy Nālani McDougall

Université Paris Nanterre, 14 mars 2025
Maïwenn-Iman Le Garff

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  • 1 The purpose of the Diaspolink–Indigenous Lines project, founded in 2024, is to highlight native voi (...)

1This conference, organized by Agnès Trouillet (Associate Professor in American civilization at University Paris Nanterre, specializing in political history and the history of cartography) and Françoise Král (Professor of British literature at University Paris Nanterre, specializing in postcolonial and diasporic literature) as part of the Diaspolink–Indigenous Lines project of the CREA (Centre de Recherche en Études Anglophones),1 centered on the works of Hawaiian artist, scholar and activist Brandy Nālani McDougall. An associate professor at the University of Hawai’i, Mānoa, McDougall has been appointed State Poet Laureate of Hawai’i 2023-2025. Her poetry, flowing seamlessly between ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and English, explores Indigenous epistemologies and traditions while denouncing the enduring effects of American colonialism and capitalism in the Hawaiian islands. McDougall insists on not italicizing Hawaiian terms, or putting them in quotation marks, so as not to inferiorize or exoticize ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi in relation to English; the same convention has been applied to this article.

2This conference constituted the closing event of a series of lectures initiated by Jean-Marc Serme (Université de Bretagne Occidentale). Right before her visit to French universities (Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, Franck Miroux; Université Jean Monnet–Saint Etienne, Elisabeth Bouzonviller), McDougall was guest speaker at the 2025 Hawai‘i Triennial—the state’s largest thematic exhibition of contemporary art from Hawai‘i, the Pacific, and beyond.

3Agnès Trouillet opened the conference by outlining the main territorial, demographic and linguistic issues in Hawai‘i, based on maps of the archipelago, and evoking the recent wildfires in Lahaina, on McDougall’s native island of Maui. McDougall greeted the audience and provided a brief explanation of the implications of aloha in Hawaiian culture: this greeting, the meaning of which encompasses love, affection, peace and mercy, is meant to be reciprocated, in order to create a connection and a shared space between the speakers.

Brandy Nālani McDougall: “A Short History of Hawaiian Resistance”

4The traditional ahupuaʻa system of land division, designed to ensure the just repartition of resources, is still in use in the Hawaiian Islands; however, the watersheds which used to delineate land boundaries have mostly dried up due to the expansion of sugar plantations. This is but one of the many ways in which colonial exploitation has transformed the landscape of the archipelago. The continued practice of ahupuaʻa in spite of these ecological challenges is an instance of ‘onipa‘a—permanence in change, or resilience. McDougall emphasized that the doctrine of ‘onipa‘a, which has been the motto of both King Kamehameha V (who reigned from 1863 to 1872) and Queen Liliʻuokalani (who reigned from 1891 to the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893), has remained the basis for Indigenous resistance through Hawaiian colonial history.

Emergence of the Sugar Industry

5In traditional Hawaiian society, land ownership was a foreign concept, as exemplified by the proverb “He aliʻi ka ʻāina, he kauwa ke kanaka”—the land is chief, and people are its servants. The establishment of the first sugar plantations in 1835 marked the beginning of a radical transformation of the Hawaiian territory, as the nascent sugar industry quickly boomed and, with it, increasing pressure to open land ownership to foreign demands. By the mid-nineteenth century, the influx of immigrant laborers and the collapse of the Indigenous population—chiefly due to epidemics and venereal diseases introduced by the colonizers—had drastically modified the ethnic and cultural makeup of the islands. The environmental toll was equally severe. Between 1856 and 1920, 3.2 billion liters of water were diverted from streams and sources for the benefit of the sugar industry, resulting in widespread ecological disruption. The depletion of soils by monoculture coupled with the ever more difficult access to water forced local populations to enter the plantation workforce and sell their lands. Although the islands were still officially under Hawaiian rule, the sugar industry rapidly came to dominate daily life, and its representants increasingly infiltrated political instances, shaping policies to their advantage.

Constitutional Monarchy

  • 2 Although they developed after the abolition of slavery, plantations in Hawaii were modeled after so (...)

6In an attempt to secure Indigenous claims to the land, King Kamehameha III (reigning from 1825 to 1854) initiated a series of constitutional reforms throughout the 1830s and 1840s. However, these efforts failed to regulate the sugar industry, whose profits increased over 800% between the 1830s and the 1870s.2 In 1875, the United States ratified the Reciprocity Treaty, recognizing Hawaiian sovereignty; in 1887 however, King Kalākaua was forced by political supporters of the sugar industry and American militias to sign what became known as the Bayonet Constitution, which limited the authority of the Hawaiian monarchy and disenfranchised Asian laborers as well as landless people.

7In 1893, Queen Lili‘uokalani, Kalākaua’s successor, sought to ratify a new constitution, that would institute labor rights for plantation workers, regulate the sugar industry, and return voting rights to landless and working-class individuals. Three days after her attempt, the Hawaiian kingdom was overthrown.

Provisional Government & The Republic of Hawaii

8Sugar planters, alleging they were in danger of being victimized, had formed a Committee of Safety to protect their interests. “To the colonial system,” McDougall commented, “any attempt at regulation is a form of victimization.” This Committee, with the support of the American military, had the Hawaiian monarchy deposed on January 17th, 1893. A provisional government was established. Gatherings of more than three people became passible of a prison sentence; public criticism of the government was made illegal; and a pledge of allegiance was now necessary in order to vote, sit on a jury, or hold a public office.

9In 1895, Indigenous activists made an unsuccessful attempt to reinstate Queen Lili‘uokalani on the throne.

10In 1898, an anti-annexation petition signed by over 35,000 people (amounting to more than 90% of the Hawaiian population) did prevent the ratification of a treaty of annexation pending in the American Congress—the petition emphasized that such an annexation violated both the American Constitution and international law. Nevertheless, Hawai‘i was annexed that same year by President McKinley’s signing of the Newlands Resolution (July 7th, 1898), in spite of local indignation and opposition.

Queen Lili‘uokalani: Resistance through the Arts

11Found guilty of treason by an American military tribunal after the failed 1895 attempt at her reinstatement, Queen Lili‘uokalani was held prisoner in two rooms of ʻIolani Palace. An inspiring figure to McDougall and many indigenous Hawaiian activists, Lili‘uokalani ceaselessly protested and fought back throughout her incarceration, through the writing of songs and stories, the sewing of quilts and the creation of gardens which were used by activists to gather secretly and exchange messages.

12During that time, Lili‘uokalani produced an English translation of the Kumulipo, a Hawaiian epic poem retracing a traditional account of the creation of the universe—how, from creative darkness, emerged the primordial slime from which all life stems. The Kumulipo, one of the fundamental texts of the Hawaiian tradition, merges story, history, theory, cosmogony and genealogy; it traces the 800 human generations from which the kings and queens of Hawai‘i descend—an account so old it predates human presence in the archipelago. Through her work of translation, McDougall suggested, Lili‘uokalani meant to convey a message to English-speaking audiences, showing the depth of Native Hawaiians’ relation to their land. “But the US is a very young country,” she added, “that came to life by taking the lands of very old cultures; and so it respected only what was new—new money, new lands—and Lili‘uokalani’s message fell on deaf ears.”

“An ongoing genealogy of literature focused on decolonizing Hawaii”

13Emphasizing the limitations of military resistance, both from a practical and ethical standpoint, McDougall insisted that artistic expression is a vital instrument in the decolonial struggle. Tracing a lineage from her mentor Haunani-Kay Trask3 to her own students and contemporary artists, such as rapper Punahele or poet No‘u Revilla, McDougall underlined the continuity and intertextuality of Hawaiian activism. She also highlighted initiatives such as the artist residency program at the Shangri La Museum in Honolulu, which repurposes colonial architecture to foster local artists and activists and invite discussions about decolonization.4

14McDougall concluded with a reading of recent works, some of which had not yet been read in public before—including a poem dedicated to Lahaina, the ancient capital of the Hawaiian kingdom, once called the Venice of Hawai‘i. Maps provide the formal structure of the poem; typography recreates landmarks; black lines show the now dry riverbeds where water used to flow. The poet insisted that the wildfire that ravaged Lahaina in 2023—the deadliest the United States had known in over a century—has been a direct consequence of the capitalist exploitation of the island.

  • 5 Twelve telescopes have already been built on Mauna Kea since the 1960s.
  • 6 Human beings have three piko: the navel, representing the connection to one’s parents and to the pr (...)

15“Settler colonialism,” McDougall added, “is always established through genocide, both physical and cultural, and ecocide, to eliminate the native population’s connection to the land.” Native Hawaiian activism is therefore first and foremost based on defending ʻāina hānau—the land one is born in and from—as exemplified by the ongoing protests against plans to install a giant telescope, the Thirty Meter Telescope,5 on the slopes of Mauna Kea, one of the most sacred places in the Hawaiian Islands. “Mountains are the piko of the earth,” McDougall explained. All at once navel, center and source, symbolizing intergenerational connection, piko is a concept of great cultural significance in Hawaiian cosmology.6

Roundtable

16The roundtable featured Laura Bermudez (Cultural Anthropology, Gender and Social Inclusion, Global Land Alliance), Corinne Bigot (Associate Professor in Commonwealth literature at Université Toulouse Jean-Jaurès, CAS, Canadian Literature and Gender Studies), Cécile Coquet-Mokoko (Professor of American civilization at Université de Versailles-St Quentin, CHCSC, African American Studies), and Luz Angela Hernandez (Visual artist, CREA). Joanne Vrignaud (PhD Student at Université Paris Nanterre, CREA) moderated the exchange. After the main presentation, participants shared an overview of their own work regarding Indigenous and decolonial concerns.

17Laura Bermudez shared a presentation on the history of Indigenous rights and recognition in Colombia, delineating the key changes in policy that, from 1957 to 2024, made Colombia one of the leading countries in the protection of Indigenous groups. The careful development of procedures for ethnic recognition and land demarcation, as well as institutional adaptation (enfoque diferencial) allowed for the perspective of each Indigenous group to be heard and represented in domains such as legislation, health or education. However, Indigenous groups in Colombia are still threatened by illegal encroachment on their lands, and disproportionately affected by the armed conflict that destabilizes the region.

  • 7 Falling coconuts are considered a serious liability, particularly when tourists are involved.

18Asked about the aspirations of the Land Rights movement in Hawa‘i, McDougall stated that its primary objective was to protect the land by following its own laws and rules. She insisted that although many Hawaiian activists are devoted to independence, the cornerstone of the movement remains the protection of a land threatened by militarization, tourism, ecocide, exploitation and privatization. The rights specific to Native Hawaiians, such as the right to gather protected plants for hula or ceremonies, are not always respected or enforced: their right to access the beach, for instance, is often challenged by private landowners. McDougall provided examples of civil disobedience and ‘onipa‘a, such as the continuous planting of fruit-trees—and in particular coconut trees—in spite of the legal interdiction to do so.7

19Cécile Coquet-Mokoko discussed empowerment through the spoken word, with the example of African American folk sermons, showing how they create a parallel political space by means of changing the audience’s sense of space and time through call and response. Colonization, she emphasized, has a specific way of denying people’s rights and disconnecting them from their past — and slavery even more so, as enslaved African Americans have been uprooted and made to believe that they were blank slates. Sermons therefore became a means of resistance for enslaved people, a means to sustain a sense of dignity, selfhood and even sanity. Investing in the spoken word became a way to create a “portable identity” for oneself. A sermon is a poem people co-create, a shared identity they establish together through call and response, Coquet-Mokoko concluded, just as saying aloha is calling for an answer.

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Notes

1 The purpose of the Diaspolink–Indigenous Lines project, founded in 2024, is to highlight native voices and epistemologies through collaboration between Natives and non-Natives. The first event of the project, First Nations and the (Un-)Weaving of History, has been held in September 2024 at Université Paris Nanterre. https://crea.parisnanterre.fr/groupes-de-recherche-et-projets-thematiques/diaspolinks-indigenous-lines.

2 Although they developed after the abolition of slavery, plantations in Hawaii were modeled after southern plantations. Laborers—most of whom came from Asia, often as indentured servants—were kept in a cycle of perpetual and ever-increasing debt, ensuring the system both control of the workforce and economic stability.

3 Leader of the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement in the 1990s. Her 1993 speech “We are not American,” delivered in front of ‘Iolani Palace on the centenary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom, marked a turning point in Hawaiian activism and national consciousness: “it broke the colonial spell,” McDougall stated.

4 See Punahele’s “The Return” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39_BhDDYrxA.

5 Twelve telescopes have already been built on Mauna Kea since the 1960s.

6 Human beings have three piko: the navel, representing the connection to one’s parents and to the present; the fontanel, representing the connection to one’s ancestors and to the past; and the genitals, representing the connection to one’s descendants and to the future. Ancestral knowledge, in the form of dreams or inspiration, is received through the fontanel. Creation, never a purely individual act, can only be achieved with the help of one’s ancestors.

7 Falling coconuts are considered a serious liability, particularly when tourists are involved.

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Référence électronique

Maïwenn-Iman Le Garff, « Journée d’études : Brandy Nālani McDougall »Transatlantica [En ligne], 2 | 2025, mis en ligne le 01 décembre 2025, consulté le 16 février 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/26436 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/15i1x

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Maïwenn-Iman Le Garff

Université Paris Nanterre

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