Terrorism or Native Protest?

In the mid-1970s a Native Hawaiian surfing group called the Hui 'O He'e Nalu protested a burgeoning professional surfing industry that threatened a Hawaiian cultural sanctuary on O'ahu's North Shore. Popular media have since portrayed the Hui as a group of unruly, savage-like Native troublemakers, but oral history interviews with Hui members reveal that they had clear anti-colonial objectives. This article examines why their objectives were not seen as rational or political. Mainland representations of Pacific Island men had often stereotyped most Hawaiian men as submissive and unmanly, yet Hui members were branded terrorists. Such labels have historically helped colonizing nations justify their exploits. In the context of the Hawaiian Renaissance,Hui members nevertheless found ways to achieve their objectives within these parameters and to reassert Hawaiian masculinity.