Representation of indigenous cultures: considering the Hawaiian hula

Published date09 October 2017
Date09 October 2017
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JD-01-2017-0010
Pages1137-1148
AuthorLala Hajibayova,Wayne Buente
Subject MatterLibrary & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet
Representation of indigenous
cultures: considering the
Hawaiian hula
Lala Hajibayova
Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA, and
Wayne Buente
University of HawaiiatMānoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the representation of Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian) Hula Dance
in traditional systems of representation and organization.
Design/methodology/approach This exploratory study analyzes the controlled and natural language
vocabularies employed for the representation and organization of Hawaiian culture, in particular
Hawaiian hula. The most widely accepted and used systems were examined: classification systems (Library
of Congress Classification and Dewey Decimal Classification), subject heading systems (Library of Congress
Subject Headings and authority files (Library of Congress and OCLC Authority Files), and citation indexing
systems (Web of Science Social Sciences and Art and Humanities databases).
Findings Analysis of various tools of representation and organization revealed biases and diasporization
in depictions of Hawaiian culture. The study emphasizes the need to acknowledge the aesthetic perspective of
indigenous people in their organization and presentation of their own cultural knowledge and advocates a
decolonizing methodology to promote alternative information structures in indigenous communities.
Originality/value This study contributes to the relatively limited scholarship on representation and
organization for indigenous knowledge organization systems, in particular Hawaiian culture. Research
suggests that access to Native Hawaiian cultural heritage will raise awareness among information
professionals in Hawaii to the beauty of Native Hawaiian epistemology.
Keywords Classification schemes, Controlled vocabularies, Indigenous culture, Hawaiian Hula Dance,
Knowledge representation and organization, Representation of indigenous knowledge
Paper type Research paper
Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian) Hula Dance
Hawaii[1] is considered synonymous with paradise for its pristine and beautiful nature, its
unique culture and hospitality, and the love or aloha of the Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian) people.
Throughout its modern history, Hawaii has been personified through the figure of a female
Hawaiian dancer or Kanaka Maoli hula dancer (Imada, 2012). As Imada points out, in
pre-contact Hawaii and up to the late nineteenth century, hula was a highly venerated,
selective, and restricted form of religious and political praxis(p. 11). Hula dancers were
guardians of Kanaka Maoli historiography, cosmogony, and genealogies, undergoing
ritualized training to reproduce and transmit knowledge for high-ranking chiefs (Imada,
2012). Religious forms of hula also honored akua or gods (Stillman, 1998). Imada (2012) also
explains that in the late 1880s, the Hawaiian monarchy revived and enshrined hula as an
anti-imperial, state-sponsored form of national revival in defiance of haole [foreign]
missionary settlers(p. 11). After Christian missionaries arrived, however, a dualistic
perception emerged as hula was either vehemently condemned as a primitive ritual
(Keawe, 2008) or passionately praised as a sacred celebration. In modern times it is likely to
be viewed as erotic entertainment.
Imada (2012) points out that importing live hula performances into the continental USA
initiated a process of representing Hawaiiasaneroticized and feminized spacethat is
disposed to political, military, and tourist penetrations(p. 6), in that the staged hula
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 73 No. 6, 2017
pp. 1137-1148
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-01-2017-0010
Received 12 January 2017
Revised 23 May 2017
Accepted 2 June 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
1137
Representation
of indigenous
cultures

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