Racial Entanglements: Tracing the Transpacific Impacts of Pu‘uloa, ‘Iliahi, and Hawaiian Anticolonial Struggle

Abstract: This essay addresses the need for relational transpacific approaches to race and empire across groups, species, and sites. Pacific Islander knowledge is crucial for such approaches, but Asian American-ists must avoid extracting it. We should develop distinct frameworks accountable to Native Pacific knowledge. Juxtaposing Kanaka Maoli concepts with Asian American scholarship and Ruth Ozeki’s novel A Tale for the Time Being , I assemble a racial entanglement theory for the range of agencies in empire. I show how Hawai‘i’s colonization, the militarization of Pu‘uloa, whaling, and sandalwood extraction impacted iconic Asian American history, making Hawaiian struggles central to Asian American studies.