Ke Kulana He Mahu: Remembering a Sense of Place (review)

This documentary relates a tale of how colonialism profoundly transformed Kanaka Maoli (indigenous Hawaiian) society and the forms of love that are acceptable in "the land of aloha." By contrasting the diversity of gender and sexual practices in precolonial times with the stigmatization and marginalization of transgendered and gay people in Hawai'i today, the film asks us to ponder a question posed by Kanaka Maoli activist Ku'umealoha Gomes at the beginning of the film: "Where did the change come from?" The question is a rhetorical one, and the film does not provide any explicit answers; rather, it forces us to draw our own conclusions by making sense of the montage of testimonies, interviews, dance performances, old photographs, artistic renderings, and scenes of ocean and landscapes presented to us.

The film can be divided roughly into three sections. The first part examines kulana (place, station, status, rank) in Kanaka Maoli society and culture of the mahu, a term that was originally used for both "hermaphrodites" and for transgendered males and females. Kanaka Maoli and non-Kanaka Maoli scholars, activists, archivists, and kumu hula (Hawaiian dance instructors) all affirm the acceptance of mahu in traditional society. Mahu are interviewed and featured as important cultural educators and practitioners, and they perform oli (chants) and hula kahiko (traditional dance). Interviewees then relate a familiar story of colonial decay as they describe the ways that the adoption of western law, Christianity, and a cash-based economy, along with the widespread loss of life and land (caused by disease and foreign intrusion), threatened to wipe out Kanaka Maoli communities and ways of life. Although Kanaka Maoli did survive, many today struggle with their identities—none more than the mahu.

The second section, entitled "modern times," looks at the drag queen community in Honolulu. Between scenes of drag queen performances in nightclubs, about half a dozen queens share their experiences and struggles with family, friends, and society. A series of intimate and moving interviews with two queens and their mothers reveals the spiritual and emotional trials that entire families must go through, especially when struggling with AIDS and Christianity. Academic and community leaders discuss famous mahu in Hawaiian history as well as the occurrence of aikane, a practice in which high-ranking ali'i (chiefs) took lovers of the same sex. The film then addresses the same-sex marriage debate/debacle of 1998 in which a proposed state constitutional amendment to grant the legislature the power to limit marriages to heterosexual couples only galvanized both conservative and liberal forces in Hawai'i and across the United States; above all else, the film shows how the event divided the local community and misrecognized gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered (GLBT) lives.

The final part of the film, "a story of aloha amidst Western exclusion," documents a tradition of love and caring in times when Kanaka Maoli communities were being torn apart by epidemics. Even when the Hawaiian government was forcibly quarantining individuals afflicted with leprosy (Hansen's disease), the bonds of 'ohana (family) outweighed the law. Caroline Sinavaiana-Gabbard, a Samoan writer and professor at the University of Hawai'i, warns that this tradition of acceptance is being threatened by the "tyranny of the binary frame" (the division of the world into stratified "either-or" categories) that is currently in place as a result of colonization. In the final fifteen minutes or so, the film brings together the multiple discussions that have been occurring throughout, with the addition of a story of a gay man who died a suspicious and tragic death. It then ends where it began, with Ku'umealoha Gomes asking, "Where did the change come from?"

This is an...