Spring 2018
Article by Prof. Arista on British Library Special Exhibit
Prof. Noelani Arista has published an article on the British Library website, in conjunction with the exhibit on the Voyages of Captain Cook, titled “Encountering history: ‘Discovery’ and ‘Resolution’ revisited.” From the British Library website:
“Hawaiian Historian Noelani Arista looks at another side of the story of Cook’s landing in Hawaiʻi, discussing how Hawaiians might have interpreted his arrival and how his death has since been depicted.”
“Discovery and Resolution, the names of the ships which bore James Cook to Hawaiian shores, were also values of the age that propelled such voyages into the Pacific. However ‘discovery’ as it has been rhetorically scripted by historians, has often been a one-sided tale.
“In the case of Hawaiʻi, discovery was not undertaken with intention, but achieved through chance. Perhaps we should finally consider from this vantage point in the 21st century what was ‘discovered’ and what remained beyond the comprehension and aptitude of these transient haole (foreigners) who produced Hawaiʻi and Hawaiians as objects of knowledge in their journals, correspondence, reports, sketches, and material objects collected.”