A Foreign Mission on Native Soil:
Hawaiian Protestant Ministry and Indigenous Agency in Early California (1848-1868)
Presenter: April Farnham
Presenter Status: Graduate student
Academic Year: 19-20
Semester: Spring
Faculty Mentor: Michelle Jolly
Department: History
Funding Source/Sponsor: Other
Abstract:
| Using recently translated Hawaiian-language newspaper material and missionary correspondence, this project traces the movements of foreign Protestant missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) from Hawaii to California and their influence on Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) immigrants. In response, Kānaka Maoli Christians adapted Protestant missionary practices towards developing social, economic, and religious ties with Indigenous communities in California. This adaptation mirrored forms of Indigenous agency that Kānaka Maoli people had been exercising within the Hawaiian Kingdom well before contact with Europeans. This project adopts an interdisciplinary approach in illustrating the transpacific connections between the Hawaiian Kingdom and California in the nineteenth century. It underscores the importance of using Hawaiian-language writings for decolonizing the historical narrative and situating California history within a Pacific World lens. |