Kawai Strong Washburn for SHARKS IN THE TIME OF SAVIORS
A note from Serena Morales, Books Are Magic’s Events & Marketing Associate:
This conversation was conducted around my belief that Kawai Strong Washburn was Kanaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiian, and it has been brought to my attention that he is not. As you can see, if you were present for this conversation or are viewing it now, many of my questions centered around the notion that we had a shared cultural history and heritage, as I myself am Kanaka Maoli. I wish to withdraw my support of this novel, as I view it as a harmful work of misappropriation. However, I have opted to post this recording for the purpose of accountability. I would like it to be known that I would not have organized this event, held the conversation in this manner, or demonstrated support for this novel at all, had I known it was a work of cultural appropriation. To be clear, I would have given this novel and it’s author equal levels of enthusiastic support if it had been transparent in the writing and the marketing of it, that this book was by and about non-native POC in Hawai’i, and if it was about the complexities of that identity. Instead, Washburn made the conscious choice to write from the first-person perspective of Native Hawaiians, which to me, was a missed opportunity to be a part of a very important conversation about the relationship non-native ethnic groups have to settler-colonialism in the Pacific. I would like it to be known that we natives can (and do) speak for ourselves and do not need settlers to (mis)appropriate our narratives in order for them to matter. Though perhaps those who enabled this decision feel that they need our narratives, or rather, the native ‘angle’ in order to sell the book. I disagree with this as well.
My first question to Kawai began “to my knowledge, this is the first novel BY AND ABOUT a Hawaiian…” I am extremely disappointed that Kawai chose not to disclose his positionality at this point, nor at any point, during or after the conversation, though I had made it clear that I believed he was Kanaka Maoli (early on, I thank him “one Kanaka to another”). I consider this a lie by omission and I apologize to anyone who bought the book by any persuasion I may have contributed to, that it was an Own Voices novel. For those interested in reading an Own Voices book by a Pacific Islander for AAPI Heritage Month, please know that this novel is not it, and that Kawai Strong Washburn is neither Native Hawaiian nor indigenous Pacific Islander (nor Asian American). I reject this novel as a true representation of myself, my people, and my culture. As I mentioned during our discussion, much of this novel is rooted in mo’olelo Hawai’i—Hawaiian history, knowledge, and stories—I believe that the decision to steal our stories for his own monetary and professional advancement, and consent to marketing this novel as the great Hawaiian novel, though he is not Kanaka Maoli, pushes this project far beyond one of cultural appreciation. Anyone with knowledge of and respect for our culture would be both aware and sensitive to the fact that we have experienced more than enough (ongoing) colonial theft. Living in Hawai’i as a settler does not entitle anyone to Native Hawaiian culture or identity, and could never be sufficient insight to the lived experience of Native peoples in the Pacific or in diaspora. Further, I believe it is a disservice to us as indigenous peoples to reduce our experiences to a simple matter of multiculturalism, and that it is always unacceptable to profit from a culture that is not your own. I believe that at many instances inside and outside of this interview, Kawai Strong Washburn lied by omission or intentionally leaned into the ambiguity of his race to sell this book, causing harm to the community he claims to be a part of. It is absolutely any writer’s prerogative to write from a perspective that is not their own, if they so choose to reconcile with the ethics and implications of that decision. However, it is a deliberate choice to promote and/or discuss that work in a misleading manner, and it is the readers’ prerogative to support or reject that work. My choice is to reject Sharks in the Time of Saviors. These views are my own.
