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Nahenahe (Soft, Sweet, Melodious): Sounding Out Native Hawaiian Self-Determination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2020

KEVIN FELLEZS
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Abstract

In this essay, I explore the ways in which kī hō‘alu (Hawaiian slack key guitarists) articulated Native Hawaiian aspirations for self-determination and reterritorialization during the Second Hawaiian Renaissance. I argue that Hawaiian music speaks to a liberatory politics that is embedded within an aesthetic of nahenahe (soft, sweet, melodious). Nahenahe invests slack key guitarists with the mana (power, authority) to invoke a Native Hawaiian perspective that empowers and sustains Kanaka Maoli (native Hawaiian) efforts for self-determination and political autonomy. The connections between music and political activism were highlighted and strengthened throughout the period. Indeed, although numerous political groups organized throughout the period, providing the modern foundations to the struggles for sovereignty today, at the forefront of it all were the musicians.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 13 , Special Issue 4: Music, Indigeneity, and Colonialism in the Americas , November 2019 , pp. 411 - 435
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Music 2020

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