E 'ao lu'au a kualima

Writing and Rewriting the Body and the Nation

Abstract

Currently the Kanaka Maoli, or Maoli are struggling to restore Ka Lahui, or the Maoli nation. At the same time, they face the highest rates of chronic disease and cancer, and have become in the discourse of Western medicine the "unhealthy Hawaiian." This article seeks to trace the geneaology of the "unhealthy Hawaiian" as it articulates with the attempted destruction of the nation. But health is a contested terrain, and for the past two hundred years, the Maoli have resisted colonization and now neo or postcolonialism. This resistance encompasses health as well, in maintaining tradition against the inscription of the Maoli into the American and international political economies, as well as the restoration of the Maoli ola and the health of Ka Lahui.