The Depiction of Native Hawaiians in American Media

This paper examines the ways in which colonial ideologies influenced the presentation of Native Hawaiians in American media throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Since the acquisition of the Hawaiian Islands as a U.S. territory in 1898, American cartoonists, advertisers, authors, filmmakers, and others have promoted racist, sexist, and oversexualized versions of Native Hawaiians to the American public because of their deeply ingrained, sometimes unconscious, colonial ways of thinking. Although Indigenous Studies is a growing area of interest in the academy, research on Native Hawaiian media representation and the impact of stereotypes on both Native Hawaiian identity and public views of Native Hawaiians is scarce. This paper uses political cartoons, travel ephemera, film footage, and various forms of print media to bring to light the most prominent stereotypes of Native Hawaiians and explore how the origins of these stereotypes can be traced back to American colonialism. Unlike pre-existing works, this paper scrutinizes various examples of Native Hawaiian media representations from an intersectional perspective, considering racial-, gender-, and sexuality-based approaches. It also critically examines the role of exoticization, instead of focusing on only one of the aforementioned approaches. By outlining the fallacious stereotypes of the Native Hawaiian community and explaining their origins, this paper can help arm the media industry with the necessary tools to create more culturally competent media content.