Hawaiian Plantation Stories: The Values of Island People
Forgotten Plantation History: The history of that is established is from a movement of American Academics and Rich Businessmen set out to discipline Hawaii Plantation immigrant communities and America’s overthrown Hawaiians, so what has been recorded is specific and what is left out was also specific, because then there are only certain times and people that are remembered while many stories are lost and what is left from it is a imported workforce with many of the people paying for the history to be recorded to not get a complete story of the workers themselves, but how academia of the time would establish it being funded by the governing body that took over. Nowadays when people imagine the plantations the images that come to mind are: pineapple picking and sugarcane burning, people of brown skin being followed by enforcers, struggling camps and rich mansions.
Untold Stories of Hawaii Plantation Workers: The Plantation Era was from 1850-1950 by Historians, but that does not include the entirety of all history of Plantations in Hawaii, however the most information that has been gathered comes from the 1900-1930. The immigrants included: Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Okinawan, Portugues, Puerto Rican, and Native Hawaiians, which each have their own stories and histories to tell with numerous books and museums that explain things in detail, such as the Hawaii Plantation Village that is located on Oahu in Waipahu and the Hawaii Plantation Museum on Big Island in Papaikou.
Personal Stories: People aren’t really familiar with their own families stories when they are generationally rooted in Hawaii and they wish were spoken about, so sometimes these stories weren’t shared. Its important to understand the past to understand the present and one of the groups that are making a serious archive on this is the “Ulu Ulu” Center for Labor Education and Research at West Oahu Campus. When talking to people from different plantations things can be really different from the food to the lifestyle to the stories to the outcomes. The way that each island did things would be very different and no two stories would be the same and multiple peoples stories are necessary for a much clear picture of how things actually were.
Talking about the Positive & Negative of Plantations: The stories of everyday people haven’t seen as much attention as the Politicians, Historical figures, Business men, or Large event’s. There are many of those who were the workers that were lost and not recorded and not deemed important without the stories that make it clear what it was like back in the days of the plantation. They persevered and it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t great and there were communities facing hard times that were necessary to get to those good ole days at the ending of the plantation era rather than its beginnings. Not every plantation had positive stories and there were some places where adversaries never overcame the challenges and things went really bad.
Plantation Era Ends: In the Early Plantation days the families struggled to get any sort of academics as there were limited schools available as well as Academic-privilege of elite-college admissions and luxury of academics in the 1920s. People would stream of the prestige and privilege of not being working a job in the fields, but some high paying job that would be less labor intensive and much easier to support the family with a good education that they never had. Passing on that knowledge of hardwork and lessons of local plantation values to save every item, every dollar, and store it all away would be with the goals of needing something someday and purchasing a home to have the family and neighborhood excel. Kids who worked with their parents in the fields would not want to work as their parents did in the sugar cane fields and would make goals in: Home Economics Guru, School Teacher, Bank Worker, or Tourism Hospitality.
Plantation Families After the War: After the war many locals would have to prove themselves to be Loyal to Americans and prove it, so many people from Hawaii signed up to join the Army during World War II, where many of them never would return. This had instilled that close-attention would be on Hawaii Education, Neighborhood Development, and Fair Livable Wages with worker rights would be top priorities. Those who stayed back often times spent summers working at the Pineapple Canning Companies and taught locals that they did not want that sort of labor intensive job for the rest of their lives. Such experiences would reflect the appreciation and pride of families of the plantation and would think about their families and neighbors would do whatever it would take to support them.
Generational Wealth of The American-Progress: Seeing the blocks of road where things would be hauled away and trucks rattle outside the plantation houses and cottages that are near the machinery that clanks and clicks to let the people know they are still in use. Residents were given notice to find other places to live as places closed and those nice neighborhoods that supported one another would begin to fade out without rebuttal and disappear without too much being recorded about it. In texts this was recorded as claims of American-Progress as those who were descendants of landowners would continue to thrive with generational-wealth and generational-poverty increasing. This would be examined as the Hawaii economy could survive with large agriculture industries, canning, and sustainable farms and fishing practices that would be enough for those who lived in Hawaii. However, due to seeking increased financial interest those sustainability practices would be competing with International and National Outsourcing that would begin at an incredibly fast pace in the pursuit of higher profits.
Everyone Take Care: The family pictures of everything nostalgic and happy can tell one tail, but the ones of sadness can be just as bitter sweet. The families of the plantations were hard workers because of the rough times, but their lifestyles were formed from incredible hardships as one grandma recollects that when she was a child she was doing her best to make the rice, but she had some physical problems, so she stayed home in a wheel chair taking care of what chores she could. She could still move around with difficulty of a small space, but her father would always help adjust her position and her brother would ask if she was comfortable and her sister would help her get around when they had gotten home from the fields. When the kids came back from they would ask if she needed a hand rub as to cope with the discomfort and the whole family would try to figure out and think out a way to have things be comfortable and loving instead of incredibly tragic and dismissed.
The Art of Living Together, that is what it was back in the plantation because it wasn’t so easy to just say just get along or go and be friends and push people together to be close… there was a art to living together and the opposite of such an art was the art of separating people as would be often referred to the Internment Camps of World War II. The most famous of those living with this local attitude were the 442nd who were wrongfully treated with unfairness, but stuck to other locals like glue and spoke in a way Russian translators of English couldn’t understand their code speak (Hawaiian Pidgin English). Some would learn these lessons in church as preached. Taking care was not a military practice, not a religious practice, but a part of the local lifestyle of plantation values.
“To know the love of wife and child and friend, and the art of living together; to give and forgive and forget, holding no grudges; to reveal the best in ourselves, and to evoke the best in others; to look up, not down, and lend a hand to life a burdened friend; to trust the ultimate decency of things and the love of god this is life” -Rev. Paul S. Osumi
Make em Ohana: A Family would be working together to insure each member of the family was taken care of and not just as a saying or a financial-return of care, but to actually go over and show authentic concern for comfort and love. A problem of one family member would be everyone's problem and that would extend as neighborhoods became closer as well with the neighbors kids from across the street to the homes that were on the left to the right were all of the larger local network. You Japanese friend got a problem its your problem, your Puerto Rican friend got problem? Well its yours now, your Hawaiian friend need words of wisdom, well time to help out! Your chinese friend needs the plates in back of their family restaurant? Time to take a stack!
It would start off as a problem, but there would be solutions through lifestyle changes that would create lifelong learning and adjustments to make the best out of it. In the times of plantation there was no way to dream for money or a dream of getting out of the situation as things were increasingly bleak, so the neighborhood and the family was seen as a sort of sanctuary. It would be looked down upon to just sit around and not do anything about the things going on if there was a problem. The idea was always think of what you can do or to make oneself useful instead of wasting time. The idea that people would be wasting time would be based on what there was to do, so communicating what had to be done would be as important as doing it. The plantation environment was where there was lots of tough-discipline, self critiquing and development, exchanges of love, respect for other cultures wisdom, and much needed compassion.
When a family member or person in the neighborhood would reach out it wasn’t a time to scold them, but it was a chance for the other people in the neighborhood and family to grow in caring and having compassion for others. This story was seen as a reminder of the back then attitude with the back then taking care of each other that has slowly been more difficult as people are “priced out of paradise” and time and caring has been in short supply with a dog-eat-dog Hawaii. People back then died from all sorts of accidents and unreported incidents and life would never have a sort of long expectancy with 60 being pretty long, so life was seen as a gift and to be blessed with each passing day no matter how hard. Things were much too hard back then to think about the divide of ethnicities when corporate interest would be hammering everyone down, so humbleness and a smile while working together was the greatest strength.
Fix em Up Kine: In the days of hard long days and no ways to get out and have fun from financial difficulties there would be always something someone would need and they would need someone for provide them with that something. There were these friends, family, neighbors, that knew each other in the neighborhood and they would go through an entire process of looking for people, so one friend asked the other if she could “Fix em up” with someone and that would be part of the major plan to fix the other friend up too, so there would be this whole thing where there would be all sorts of meet ups like conferences, larger-gatherings, and places to find the unlikely bachelor who was also working all the time with no time to themselves. The old fashion way was having friends gather all sorts of boys names, addresses, and write to em to see what they were made of. If they never give a response they were most likely duds or as they use to say a “Fuddy Duddy”, “Spoiled Mango” cause brown inside, or “They stay fermenting” cause they staying home getting all stink.
The Write Back method still works today with the old fashioned touch of Pen-Pals, the slow paced digital E-mail, or the Text-Message that is less romantic it still works. In the time of non-communication happening all the time with ghosting there are perhaps more who could be spoiled, fermenting, or a dud, but only the more reason to share the good old days of projected communication that was much harder to ignore. If actual mail came in the letter would be stuck in the house for how many days and it would just be there whenever getting home or a phone would be really annoying and ring all the time, so it wasn’t easy to just say “nah” to anyone contacting one another. Communication took a lot of work and no one knew what would come of a conversation and invited that. People would tend to talk to those they might not agree with to understand differences and maybe that is why it was easier to know who was right for who, versus a world where communication is optional and almost unlikely without a whole background check.
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