Hui Aloha ʻĀina o Na Wahine or the Hawaiian Patriotic League for Women, which petitioned against annexation. Among these women are Abigail Kuaihelani Campbell, Emma Nāwahi, Rebecca Kahalewai Cummins, Mary Ann Kaulalani Parker Stillman, Jessie Kapaihi Kaae, Hattie K. Hiram, Laura Kekupuwolui Mahelona. Originally printed in Ka buke moolelo o Hon. Joseph K. Nāwahī (Biography of Hon. Joseph K. Nāwahī) by J. G. M. Sheldon (Kahikina Kelekona) (1908). Via Wikimedia Commons.
In 1893 a U.S.-backed coup overthrew Queen Liliʻūokalani, reigning monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom. In a 1993 U.S. congressional apology, the U.S. government recognized the illegality of seizing the sovereign territory, and acknowledged that the islands have never been ceded by the Indigenous people of Hawai‘i. The 1898 unilateral annexation of Hawai‘i represents only one part of a long and multifaceted history of the Pacific Islands, U.S. involvement in the Pacific, and the entangled relationship between Islander diasporas, the encroaching U.S. government, and American citizens.
To reflect on the 125th anniversary of the U.S. annexation of Hawai‘i, Process invites proposals and submissions for an upcoming series of Pacific Islander histories.
We are open to a wide variety of themes relating to the histories and experiences of Pacific Islanders and U.S. involvement in the Pacific Islands, including the formation of transnational identities and communities; questions of diaspora and indigeneity; anticolonial activity, U.S. policymaking, empire, and dispossession; settler colonialism, militarism, and contested sovereignties; legal or diplomatic histories of U.S.–Pacific Islands relations and migration; nationalist movements, decolonization, and demilitarism; and the experiences of Pacific Islanders in the continental United States. Submissions might explore cultural change and continuities, examine challenges to different forms of colonialism and the meanings of sovereignty, interrogate the meanings of diaspora and indigeneity in the context of the Pacific Islands, or discuss the nature of U.S. empire in the region. We encourage pieces that engage in global, transnational, or comparative perspectives, and that intersect with issues of race, gender, sexuality, culture, sovereignty, the environment, technology, migration, or politics. We accept submissions from anyone engaged in the practice of U.S. history, including researchers, teachers, graduate students, archivists, curators, public historians, digital scholars, and others.
Submissions should be written for a public readership and should not exceed 1500 words. We will look to publish pieces in July 2023, but are open to submissions past that point. Send proposals and drafts to blog@oah.org.
