"Who are you to tell us our history?" Kultur och religion i ... - Anpere

canoes, scraping olona, carving wooden bowls, making nets, twisting two-, three-, or fourply
cords, making feather capes and round leis, and preparing gum for snaring birds. 757
Kamakau såg vad som hände hans folk och han började också betvivla sina gamla lärares,
de protestantiska missionärernas, intentioner och agenda. Han såg hur de blev allt mer
giriga och hur de i sin girighet förlorade fokus på kungadömets bästa, vilket de bedyrat att
de hade som prioritet, och istället agerade i eget intresse. Han är därför inte nådig i sitt
uttalande om de protestantiska missionärerna.
So they girded up their loins, sharpened their knives, and chose which part or the fish they
would take, one the side piece, another the belly, one the eyes, another white meat, and
another red meat. So they chose as the pleased. When the last man of them had come, they
were treated like chiefs; lands were parceled out to them; they were given the same honors
as Ka-umu-ali‘i. Yet they found fault. Now you want to close the door of heaven to the
Hawaiians. You want the honors of the throne for yourself because you sit at ease as
ministers upon your large land… 758
Under början av 1860-talet började Samuel Kamakau tvivla på sin protestantiska tro och
vände sig istället till den katolska. De bakomliggande orsakerna till detta är inte helt
entydiga, men troligtvis kom hans bristande förtroende för de protestantiska missionärerna
att vara avgörande. Det kan möjligen också ha varit så att katolikernas inställning till
”gudabilder” samt det faktum att katolikerna hade helgonbilder hjälpte Kamakau att ta den
katolska tron till sig. 759
Hans ambition att förmedla och bevara hawaiiansk historia hindrades inte av hans kristna
tro utan han fortsatte sitt arbete med att publicera sina texter i tidningar som Ka Nūpepa
Kū‘oko‘a (The Independent Newspaper) och Ke Au ‘Oko‘a. Han ansökte även om pengar
från legislaturen för att förverkliga sitt mål att sammanställa det han uppnått som ett
757 Kamakau 1992b: 122f.
758 Kamakau 1992a: 425f.
759 I en av sina kortare uppsatser från April 1860 jämför Kamakau den hawaiianska synen på
gudabilder med katolikernas och reder ut begreppet ”idolatry”:
“I think the Catholics are not idolaters. We do not call a person who is knowledgeable of
ancient Hawaiian traditions as idolater. However, if a Hawaiian said that such a person is
idolator, then I would say to him, ‘You are ignorant, incompetent, backwards from Kawaapae,
and one who does not know much in Hawaiian’. It is a trap of the biased guidance of one who
pints to it as the truth. This is what idolatry was, as termed by the ancestors of Hawaii:
The belief in images (wood, stone) rests in its power (not in anything else). The image was
imbued with the adjudication of life, death, riches, poverty, chieftainship, to rule an island, and
the power of the ancient images to help and give power to other stones and pieces of wood.
These were important images worshipped: Keoloewa, Hooneenuu, Kalaipahoa, Kiimaluahaka
etc. etc.
There were several other gods and their devotion (hoomanao [ho‘omana‘o] akua ana) was kept
from Hawaii to Kauai, such were the ko‘a, the stone of Kane, Lono, Ku‘ula, Kanemakua, Hina,
Laka, etc. They were called aumakua. Several of them were made into images (akua kii [ki‘i]).
Their power resided in dreams, visions, in the form of human voices, and in the good their
dees while dwelling in human form in the old days.
The Catholics have made an image of Jesus and of the saints to remember their good deeds,
and to remember the suffering of our Lord. And upon looking at his image with tears and
blood flowing down in sadness, my love for him swelled with me and I cried. When I went to
Oahu and I saw the image of Kauikeaouli [Kamehameha II] outside of Diamonds’s store, I
carefully looked at it and I thought of his deeds and my kove for him swelled within me and I
cried, is this idolatry?”
Kamakau, 1860. “Aloha oe me ka maikai, Greetings to You with Blessings” Chun övers. i Chun
1988: 29ff.
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