‘M?lama the '?ina, M?lama the people on the '?ina’
The reaction to Avatar in Hawai`i
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v4i4.425Keywords:
Cultural ecosystem services, Hawai`i, forest, values, perceptions, Avatar, survey, interviewAbstract
We explore perceptions of the film Avatar in Kona, Hawai`i using a mixed-methods study that included surveys (n = 146) and semi-structured interviews (n = 15). Quantitative analyses indicated that Native Hawaiians were more likely than Caucasians to express a sense of cultural pride related to messages in the film. Analyses of the qualitative data revealed four central concepts addressed in surveys and interviews: (1) the need for preservation of land and culture; (2) the Native Hawaiian link to land, and its similarity with the Na`vi link; (3) the diversity of perspectives on the land, but the underlying human tendency to be greedy; and (4) the plight of native peoples in the world, and particularly in Hawai`i. We briefly discuss how these perceptions relate to the emerging field of Cultural Ecosystem Services, and potential implications of these findings for understanding how popular media can impact societal beliefs and practices.
References
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Bovey, Seth. 1993. ‘Dances with Stereotypes—Western Films and the Myth of the Noble Red Man’, South Dakota Review 31.1: 115-22.
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McGregor, Davianna P. 1996. ‘An Introduction to the Hoa’a_ina and their Rights’, Hawaiian Journal of History 30: 1-27.
Meyer, Manu. 2003. Ho’oulu: Our Time of Becoming. Hawaiian Epistemology and Early Writings (Honolulu: Ai Pohaku Press).
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Pukui, Mary Kawena. 1997. ' lelo No'eau: Hawaiian Proverbs & Poetical Sayings (Honolulu, HI: Bishop Museum Press).
Pukui, Mary Kawena, and Samuel H. Elbert. 1986. Hawaiian Dictionary (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press).
Pulver, Lisa R.J., and Sally A. Fitzpatrick. 2008. ‘Beyond Sorry—The First Steps in Laying Claim to a Future that Embraces all Australians’, Medical Journal of Australia 188.10: 556-58.
Ralston, Caroline. 1984. ‘Hawai’i 1778–1854: Some Aspects of Maka’ainana Response to Rapid Cultural Change’, The Journal of Paci_c History 19.1: 21-40. doi:10.1080/00223348408572478.
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———. 2010. Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press).
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U.S. Census Bureau. 2010. State of Hawai’i Census 2000 Summary File 1.
White, Lynn. 1967. ‘Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis’, Science 155.3767: 1203-1207. doi:10.1126/science.155.3767.1203.
Wilcoxon, Frank. 1945. ‘Individual Comparisons by Ranking Methods’, Biometrics Bulletin 1.6: 80-83. doi:10.2307/3001968.
Wilson, Edward O. 1984. Biophilia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Zimmerman, Naupaka. 2005. ‘The Nature of Identity and the Identity of Nature: Hawaiian Perspectives on Persons and Place’ (BA Thesis: The Committee on Degrees in Environmental Science and Public Policy & the Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA).
Andrade, Carlos. 2008. Ha_‘ena: Through the Eyes of the Ancestors (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press).
Appleford, Robert. 1995. ‘Coming out from Behind the Rocks: Constructs of the Indian in Recent United States and Canadian Cinema’, American Indian Culture and Research Journal 19.1: 97-118.
Babbie, Earl R. 2001. The Practice of Social Research (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Thomson Learning, 9th edn).
Bahk, C. Mo. 2011. ‘Environmental Education through Narrative Films: Impact of Medicine Man on Attitudes toward Forest Preservation’, Journal of Environmental Education 42.1: 1-13.
Beckwith, Martha Warren. 1951. The Kumulipo: A Hawaiian Creation Chant (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Berghoefer, Uta, Ricardo Rozzi, and Kurt Jax. 2010. ‘Many Eyes on Nature: Diverse Perspectives in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve and their Relevance for Conservation’, Ecology and Society 15.1. Online: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss1/art18/.
Blackford, Mansell G. 2004. ‘Environmental Justice, Native Rights, Tourism, and Opposition to Military Control: The Case of Kaho’olawe’, Journal of American History 91.2: 544-71. doi:10.2307/3660711.
Bovey, Seth. 1993. ‘Dances with Stereotypes—Western Films and the Myth of the Noble Red Man’, South Dakota Review 31.1: 115-22.
Burgess, Christopher P. et al. 2005. ‘Healthy Country: Healthy People? Exploring the Health Bene_ts of Indigenous Natural Resource Management’, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 29.2: 117-22. doi:10.1111/j.1467-842X.2005.tb00060.x.
Chan, Kai M.A. et al. 2007. ‘When Agendas Collide: Human Welfare and Biological Conservation’, Conservation Biology 21.1: 59-68. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00570.x.
Chan, Kai M.A. et al. In press. ‘Cultural Services and Non-Use Values’, in G.C. Daily (ed.), The Theory and Practice of Ecosystem Service Valuation in Conservation (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Chan, Kai M.A. et al. In preparation. ‘Integrating “Cultural” and “Social” into Ecosystem Services: A Framework for Value-Based Ecosystem Decision-Making’.
Classen, Christoph. 2009. ‘Balanced Truth: Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List Among History, Memory, and Popular Culture’, History and Theory 48.2: 77-102.
Crawford, Kehaulani E. 2010. Personal communication with Jennifer Hashimoto. Kailua Kona, HI.
de Groot, Rudolf, and P.S. Ramakrishnan. 2005. ‘Cultural and Amenity Services’, in R. Hassan and R. Scholes (eds.), Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Current State and Trends Assessment) (Washington, DC: Island Press): 455-76.
Fisher, Brendan et al. 2008. ‘Ecosystem Services and Economic Theory: Integration for Policy-Relevant Research’, Ecological Applications 18.8: 2050-67. doi:10.1890/07-1537.1.
Flores, Kalani. 2008. Hawaiian Studies Instructor at Hawai’i Community College. Personal communication with Jennifer Hashimoto. Hilo, HI.
George, Darren, and Paul Mallery. 2005. SPSS for Windows Step by Step: A Simple Guide and Reference (12.0 update) (Boston: Pearson).
Gilbert, Helen, and Joanne Tompkins. 1996. Post-colonial Drama: Theory, Practice, Politics (New York: Routledge). doi:10.4324/9780203421062.
Gould, Rachelle. In preparation. ‘Cultural Ecosystem Services and Reforestation in Hawai’i’ (PhD Dissertation: Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA).
Graves, Michael W., and D.J. Addison. 1995. ‘The Polynesian Settlement of the Hawaiian Archipelago: Integrating Models and Methods in Archaeological Interpretation’, World Archaeology 26.3: 380-99.
Harden, M.J. 1999. Voices of Wisdom: Hawaiian Elders Speak (Honolulu, HI: Booklines Hawai’i).
Hashimoto, Christiano K. 2000. Personal communication with Jennifer Hashimoto. Ho’okena, HI.
Herman, R. Douglas K. 1999. ‘The Aloha State: Place Names and the Anti-conquest of Hawai’i’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers 89.1: 76-102. doi:10.1111/0004-5608.00131.
Jenkins, W. Aaron et al. 2010. ‘Valuing Ecosystem Services from Wetlands Restoration in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley’, Ecological Economics 69.5: 1051-61. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2009.11.022.
Kamakau, Samuel Manaia_kalani. 1991. The People of Old (Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press).
Kellert, Stephen R. 2005. Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human–Nature Connection (Washington, DC: Island Press).
Khan, Muhammad S., and Shonil A. Bhagwat. 2010. ‘Protected Areas: A Resource or Constraint for Local People? A Study at Chitral Gol National Park, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan’, Mountain Research and Development 30.1: 14-24. doi:10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-09-00024.1.
Levy, Neil. 1975. ‘Native Hawaiian Land Rights’, California Law Review 63.4: 848-85. doi:10.2307/3479836.
Liliuokalani. 1990. Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen (Honolulu, HI: Mutual Publishing).
Linnekin, Jocelyn S. 1983. ‘De_ning Tradition: Variations on the Hawaiian Identity’, American Ethnologist 10.2: 241-52. doi:10.1525/ae.1983.10.2.02a00020.
Maly, Kepa_. 2001. Ma_lama pono i ka ‘a_ina—An Overview of the Hawaiian Cultural Landscape (Hilo, HI: Kumu Pono Associates).
Mann, H.B., and D.R. Whitney. 1947. ‘On a Test of Whether One of 2 Random Variables is Stochastically Larger Than the Other’, Annals of Mathematical Statistics 18.1: 50-60. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177730491.
Maxwell, Joseph. 2005. Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach (Applied Social Research, 41; Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2nd edn).
Maxwell, Joseph A., and Diane M. Loomis. 2002. ‘Mixed Methods Design: An Alternative Approach’, in A Tashakkori and C. Teddlie (eds.), Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social and Behavioral Research (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage): 241-72.
McCubbin, Laurie D., and Anthony Marsella. 2009. ‘Native Hawaiians and Psychology: The Cultural and Historical Context of Indigenous Ways of Knowing’, Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology 15.4: 374-87. doi:10.1037/a0016774.
McGregor, Davianna P. 1996. ‘An Introduction to the Hoa’a_ina and their Rights’, Hawaiian Journal of History 30: 1-27.
Meyer, Manu. 2003. Ho’oulu: Our Time of Becoming. Hawaiian Epistemology and Early Writings (Honolulu: Ai Pohaku Press).
Nakagawa, Shinichi. 2004. ‘A Farewell to Bonferroni: The Problems of Low Statistical Power and Publication Bias’, Behavioral Ecology 15.6: 1044-45. doi:10.1093/beheco/ arh107.
Neal, Parion Noelani. 2010. Personal communication with Jennifer Hashimoto. Honolulu, HI.
Patton, Michael Quinn. 2002. Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 3rd edn).
Pukui, Mary Kawena. 1997. ' lelo No'eau: Hawaiian Proverbs & Poetical Sayings (Honolulu, HI: Bishop Museum Press).
Pukui, Mary Kawena, and Samuel H. Elbert. 1986. Hawaiian Dictionary (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press).
Pulver, Lisa R.J., and Sally A. Fitzpatrick. 2008. ‘Beyond Sorry—The First Steps in Laying Claim to a Future that Embraces all Australians’, Medical Journal of Australia 188.10: 556-58.
Ralston, Caroline. 1984. ‘Hawai’i 1778–1854: Some Aspects of Maka’ainana Response to Rapid Cultural Change’, The Journal of Paci_c History 19.1: 21-40. doi:10.1080/00223348408572478.
Samuels, Myra L., and Jeffrey A. Witmer. 2003. Statistics for the Life Sciences (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 3rd edn).
Scott, James C. 1998. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press).
Singleton, Royce A., Bruce C. Straits, and Margaret Miller Straits. 1993. Approaches to Social Research (New York: Oxford University Press, 2nd edn).
Takano, Takako, Peter Higgins, and Pat McLaughlin. 2009. ‘Connecting with Place: Implications of Integrating Cultural Values into the School Curriculum in Alaska’, Environmental Education Research 15.3: 343-70. doi:10.1080/13504620902863298.
Taylor, Bron. 1993. ‘Evoking the Ecological Self: Art as Resistance to the War on Nature’, Peace Review 5.2: 225-30.
———. 2010. Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press).
Trask, Haunani-Kay. 1990. ‘Coalition-Building between Natives and Non-Natives’, Stanford Law Review 43: 1197. doi:10.2307/1229037.
U.S. Census Bureau. 2010. State of Hawai’i Census 2000 Summary File 1.
White, Lynn. 1967. ‘Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis’, Science 155.3767: 1203-1207. doi:10.1126/science.155.3767.1203.
Wilcoxon, Frank. 1945. ‘Individual Comparisons by Ranking Methods’, Biometrics Bulletin 1.6: 80-83. doi:10.2307/3001968.
Wilson, Edward O. 1984. Biophilia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Zimmerman, Naupaka. 2005. ‘The Nature of Identity and the Identity of Nature: Hawaiian Perspectives on Persons and Place’ (BA Thesis: The Committee on Degrees in Environmental Science and Public Policy & the Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA).
Published
2011-01-01
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Gould, R. K., Ardoin, N. M., & Hashimoto, J. K. (2011). ‘M?lama the ’?ina, M?lama the people on the ’?ina’: The reaction to Avatar in Hawai`i. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 4(4), 425-456. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v4i4.425
