Before taking this class, i had never heard of the Tokelauan culture, and had no idea that these tiny islands existed. After learning about these islands and listening to the backgrounds on different residents of this country, it seemed to me that this culture is very similar to that of Hawai`i. The people of Tokelau seem to be very immersed in their ancient cultural practices like dancing and singing. They deeply value their relationships with each other, sharing what is their own, with others. They also lived off the land and took great care of it.
But what stood out to me the most about what we learned, was the possession of the island of Olohega by the Jenning's family. This case seemed to be almost identical to what happened to the kingdom of Hawai`i: The rulers were tricked into allowing America to take the land that was not rightfully theirs to own. It greatly saddened me to hear about how the Tokelauan's were originally convinced to sign the legal documents that gave the Jenning's family rightful ownership of their land of Olohega.
This sort of unfair possession of land seems to be a common theme amongst the pacific island cultures. It seems to only have negative and detrimental effects on the native populations. In the video we watched, they explained how the preservation of the Tokelauan culture in places such as Hawai`i has been somewhat successful, but the preservation of the language hasn't been quite as much. Because the younger generations mostly did not grow up learning tokelauan as a first language, they mostly speak english. This has dire consequences for language preservation, because once the older generation dies out, who will be left to carry on the traditional language if not the younger generation??
It seems very unlikely at this point, that the small population of Olohega will be able to successfully rise up against the US government and Jenning's family to gain their land back. The population is so small, and most of the people who once lived on the island are already very elderly and wont be around for that much longer. It is very sad that situations like this are allowed to happen, and it creates a sort of rut for traditional languages to fall into. Before long, most of the endangered languages may end up dying out, and what will we have left? Predominantly white languages. We can only hope that one day soon, before it is too late, cultures such as that of Tokelau, will be able to be saved and revived.
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The damage colonialism has done can be seen all over the Pacific. I think you make a good point when you say that their situation, “seemed to be almost identical to what happened to the kingdom of Hawai`i”. Both Tokelauans and Hawaiians had their land taken away, and in turn, it lead to unfortunate social and economic standing. But for the people of Olohega, not only was their land taken away, they were evicted from their home. The Jennings secretly and cunningly conspired against them, and kicked them off their island, much like a real-life, but much sadder version of Survivor. There is no right I can see in the illegal occupation of Hawaii, and I can say the same for the story of Tokelau.
ReplyDeleteAlong with CD, i have also never heard of Tokelau before being in this class, but with that said, I think these islands are very interesting and eye opening. It was sad to learn about the people of Tokelau and how they were booted off of their own land because of a single family that supposedly had ownership over the land. I also had no idea that there was a large group of Tokelauan people here on Hawai`i. I strongly believe that they should be let back onto their homeland to preserve their culture and land. It saddens me to know that some of the people may not see the islands of Tokelau ever again.
ReplyDeleteSame as CD and Robi, I have never heard of Tokelau before this class. When I listened to the video about how their land was lost, I thought of Hawaii. They seemed like to have similar fate as Hawaiians. The much sadder thing was they were even evicted by the Jenning's family, which was totally unfair. Colonism had lead to a lot of problems in the Pacific islands, especially accelerating the vanish of the indigenous language. Again, language is the carrier of the culture. Language diminishing can lead to culture vanishing.
ReplyDeleteWhat the Jennings family is doing is a serious injustice. I sincerely hope that justice prevails and the island is returned to its people. It amazes me that this family obviously doesn't feel that they did anything wrong, but deep down they must feel some sort of guilt for stealing these peaceful peoples homeland. That island wasn't meant for white people to use it as their private playground, it belongs to the original inhabitants.
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