Noenoe Silva: The Power of the Steel-Tipped Pen

February 5, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Mānoa Campus, Hamilton Library, 2550 McCarthy Mall

Professor Political Science, Noenoe Silva will share insights from her recent award-winning book The Power of the Steel-tipped Pen: Reconstructing Native ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÍøÕ¾ian Intellectual History.

Silva reconstructs the indigenous intellectual history of a culture where, using Western standards, none is presumed to exist. Silva examines the work of two lesser-known ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÍøÕ¾ian writers, Joseph Ho‘ona‘auao Kanep‘u (1824–ca. 1885) and Joseph Moku‘ohai Poepoe (1852–1913), to show how the rich intellectual history preserved in ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÍøÕ¾ian-language newspapers is key to understanding Native ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÍøÕ¾ian epistemology and ontology. In their newspaper articles, geographical surveys, biographies, historical narratives, translations, literatures, political and economic analyses, and poetic works, Kanepu‘u and Poepoe created a record of ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÍøÕ¾ian cultural history and thought in order to transmit ancestral knowledge to future generations. Celebrating indigenous intellectual agency in the midst of U.S. imperialism, The Power of the Steel-tipped Pen is a call for the further restoration of native ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÍøÕ¾ian intellectual history to help ground contemporary ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúÍøÕ¾ian thought, culture, and governance.


Event Sponsor
Library Services, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Clem Guthro, (808) 956-7205, guthroc@hawaii.edu, , Noenoe book poster (PDF)

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