The Conversion of Ka'ahumanu

Honestly, I didn't really like The Conversion of Ka'ahumanu by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl. I'm not sure what exactly I didn't like about it. I just couldn't really relate to the characters. I also couldn't help but think of a couple of parallels the play had with Disney's Pocahontas. Both groups of people, the native Hawaiians and the newly arrived Haole, viewed the other group at first sight as savages. (The song "Savages" from the Disney movie now pops into my head. "They're savages! Savages! Barely even human! Savages! Savages!") The other part of the play that so reminded me of Pocahontas was the way Ka'ahumanu kept trying to figure out which way she should steer her canoe. I think it is the parallels between the play and the movie that bother me about the play. I find that I have many of the same criticisms for The Conversion of Ka'ahumanu as I do for Pocahontas. I don't like the way the stereotypes are presented in the play, but I guess stereotypes are in the play for a reason and even part of the reason the play exists, as a voice against it. I am surprised that the Hawaiians were actually worse in accepting people of other races, as exhibited by the way they treated the kaua. I may be naive, but I just find it hard to believe that Hawaii in the early 1800s was really like the play makes it seem. I'm sure some of it was like that, but I can't help but assume the play is as historically accurate as Disney's Pocahontas.

The way the native Hawaiians marked the Kaua wasn't actually that surprising to me. There have been other instances of having to distinguish the "other" because they looked the same. The Jewish both in Medieval times and during the Holocaust were made to wear the star of David, a marking that distinguished them from the supposedly superior people because looks alone couldn't do that. I say the "others" because it is through the creation of an "other" that persecution can occur. Ka'ahumanu didn't even know why they were filthy and to be hated. She just knew to do that and to treat them as filth. I think in many cases of persecution, there can be some speculation of the origination of the feelings and behavior against the people being persecuted but often it is vague or unknown. Certain things can propagate these feelings and behaviors. For example, we've discussed the source of the persecution of Asian immigrants when they arrived as being their role in labor and that they look different. I'm sure it is a combination of this plus a mix of other reasons that caused Asians and Asian Americans to be discriminated and treated poorly, but the fact is that no matter what the reason is, it continued with or without the knowledge of a reason.