An ad for this shirt from an outfit in Singapore turned up on the side panel of my DK feed. It has large colorful print, characteristic of aloha shirts, often known on the mainland as Hawaiian shirts. The similarity ends there. What is wrong with this “Hawaiian Patriot Shirt”?
Let’s start with the fact that Americans forcibly deposed Queen Lili’uokalani in 1893 with the aid of the United States Marines and later imprisoned her in ‘Iolani Palace. Lili’uokalani had sought to rewrite the Bayonet Constitution that had been forced upon her brother King David Kalakaua in 1887 by the Hawaiian League, also known as the Annexation Club, an association of mostly white- American-descended Hawaiian citizens and some European and American foreign nationals with business interests in Hawai’i, and their military arm, the Honolulu Rifles. The Bayonet Constitution limited Kalakaua’s powers, replaced his cabinet, restructured the legislature to favor American-descendent interests, and imposed economic and literacy requirements for voting that effectively denied the vote to most native Hawaiians. Lili’uokalani’s attempt to re-write the Constitution provoked outrage among the former Hawaiian League, re-incarnated as the Committee of Safety. A plot by them to depose the Queen was discovered by the kingdom’s Marshall and ~500 men were summoned to protect the Queen, but the Committee called up the Honolulu Rifles and the US Marines who were better armed, and the queen was deposed.
The new Provisional Government of Hawai’i under Sanford Dole immediately sent a delegation to Washington to request annexation, while the queen sent envoys to oppose it. Lili’uokalani’s niece and heir Princess Ka’iulani left her schooling in England to meet with President Grover Cleveland and made numerous public appearances to plead her people’s cause, though she was only 17 at the time. Cleveland launched the Blount investigation, which eventually declared the coup illegal and insisted the queen should be restored, but the Provisional Government refused to do so and imprisoned the queen in ‘Iolani Palace. While in prison, Lili’uokalani composed songs and translated the Kumulipo, her family genealogy chant that records the oral history, cosmogonic mythology, and traditions of the Hawaiian people. She eventually agreed to abdicate to spare the lives of her supporters. The Republic of Hawai’i was established, and Dole and co-conspirators waited until McKinley became president in 1897, who submitted a new treaty of annexation to the Senate. The treaty failed to pass, but McKinley managed to pass it under a joint resolution of Congress and Hawai’i was annexed in 1898. The Hawaiian Islands officially became the Territory of Hawai’i in 1900 and the State of Hawai’i in 1959. Though this account of history is somewhat truncated, the details parallel in many ways the history of other colonized peoples.
As with most colonizations, the local language and culture were suppressed and discouraged, but in the 1970s a cultural renewal began, as well as the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement (which deserves another diary). While native Hawaiians hold various opinions about sovereignty, native Hawaiian rights, and America, the idea of a Hawaiian Patriot Shirt that features the American Flag with no representation of the Hawaiian flag is at best insensitive. It gets worse from there. Though ‘Iolani Palace is named after the Hawaiian hawk (‘iolani), there are no eagles in Hawai’i (not even red, white, and blue ones), nor is there any other indication of Hawaiian culture on this shirt other than perhaps the pickup trucks common in rural areas of Hawai’i as well as the mainland. The watermelon is probably a reference to 4th of July picnics, but it is also possible that it references racist stereotypes. I’m not sure if those are daisies in the trucks, but they are definitely not ohia lehua, hibiscus, naupaka, plumeria, or any other familiar native or introduced Hawaiian flower.
I will have to ask for the readers’ help in identifying the bear and wizard on the shirt, both of whom look somewhat familiar, but i can’t place their context. Nor can I make out the wizard’s sign, except the word America. I am not sure if the wizard on the right is carrying rockets, the Space Needle, or penises in his wheelbarrow.
The large image that I presume is Jesus is problematic for any “patriot shirt” in a country founded on the separation of church and state and the freedom of religion, but it has a special connotation in Hawai’i, where Hawaiian royalty welcomed Christian missionaries in 1820 and gave them land and power, many of the royals converting to Christianity, only to have the grandsons of the missionaries overthrow their government and work to disenfranchise the native people. There are plenty of Christians, including quite conservative ones, in all ethnic groups in Hawai’i including native Hawaiians, but ignoring the impact of the missionaries, both good and bad, is ignoring Hawai’i. The cross composed of a black and white flag with a red and a blue stripe may be a version of a Boogaloo Boys emblem. They reportedly use black and white flags with a red stripe, and an igloo (shorthand for boogaloo) replacing the field of stars, but there are variations and I make it a point not to know too much about their symbology.
The company that makes this shirt makes other “Hawaiian” shirts, some of which actually reference Hawaiian flora or reef fauna and many of which have as little to do with Hawai’i as this one. Most of the others however, do not seem to be designed with the Boogaloo Boys specifically in mind like this one. Posted comments on the shirt included “cute!” and “perfect”, if I recall. It was a bit of a shock to find it next to my DK stories. Aloha shirts have a long, rich, and honorable tradition as artistic representations of Hawaiian culture, and it is sad to see this kind of crap for sale claiming to be “Hawaiian”.
Rant over. Enjoy some real Hawaiian culture if you get a chance.