A curriculum of aloha? Colonialism and tourism in Hawai'i's elementary textbooks

In this article I question the efficacy of (post) colonial Hawai'i's seemin gly progressive Hawaiian studies curriculum by proceeding through a detaile d textual analysis of the curriculum's core textbooks anti instructional gu ides. Building upon Foucault's work in discourse genealogy and nerv histori cism's technique of reading a text alongside an unlikely partner from anoth er genre, I demonstrate how the images of Hawai'i and Hawaiians represented in the Hawaiian studies curriculum ar-e strikingly similar to the images t hat were first projected upon Hawaiians by early colonial voyagers and have since been perpetuated through Hawai'i's visitor industry. By juxtaposing the school texts with documents used for the training of tourist industry w orkers, I explore how the material interests of the visitor industry are ex pressed in a curriculum that attempts to interpellate young Hawaiian studen ts as low-paid tourist industry labor. In giving an example of how a well-i ntended curricular inclusion effort has had unintended, paradoxical effects , I raise difficult questions about the inclusion of underrepresented minor ity groups in the school curricula of (post) colonial societies in which co lonialist economic- and psychodynamics continue to exist. Turning the logic of visibility politics on its head, I send a warning to all indigenous and disadvantaged groups engaged in parallel struggles across the globe, cauti oning them to think closely be-fore lobbying for inclusion in area studies curricula that may ultimately do more damage than good.