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summary (spoiler alert!)
This play is the final part of a trilogy. The first play, Kamau, centers on Alika Kealoha, who struggles to decide whether to sell his family's land to a tourism company in order to secure his family's economic future. Because of the financial strain and fear of parental responsibility, Alika's cousin committs suicide, leaving his daughter Stevie-Girl without a father. Alika adopts Stevie-Girl as his own daughter. In Ua Pau, about a decade later, a grown-up Stevie-Girl returns from college on the continent intent on making sense of the tensions in her family and her identity as a Native Hawaiian. She feels estranged from her father Alika, in part because he now manages a hotel that Stevie-Girl isn't sure serves the interest of Native Hawaiians. Stevie-Girl also discovers that her parents' marriage is disintegrating because of Alika's infidelity, adding to her growing estrangement from him. She reconnects with her uncle Michael, however, who helps her make sense of her complicated feelings about family and culture. In the end, Alika committs suicide as well, for many of the same reasons Stevie-Girl's biological father did. In another major plot twist, Stevie-Girl takes a DNA test that reveals she isn't Hawaiian. Her mother, who is white, was already pregnant with Stevie-Girl when she arrived in Hawai'i, and deceived Alika's family into thinking she was the cousin's daughter.
Stevie-Girl
The main character of the play, Stevie-Girl struggles with the question of what it means to be Native Hawaiian. She tries to work out what role she can play as a leader in the Native Hawaiian community as it seeks to assert its cultural and economic strength. But she finds many contradictions within her identity. As her father points out, for example, it is his financial success in the tourism industry that pays for the college education that has given Stevie-Girl the luxury of thinking about these important issues in relative comfort, a luxury Alika and his cousins didn't enjoy in their youth. Stevie-Girl's sense of identity is especially threatened after she finds out through the DNA test that she isn't Hawaiian--at least not genetically. (Her mother reveals that her biological father was a Native American man from Washington state).
uncle Michael mahekona
Part of the second play in the trilogy, Kamau A'e, focuses on Uncle Michael's incarceration. He serves time for "trespassing" on his family's property after Alika has sold it to the tourism company. It also portrays his emergence as an activist for Native Hawaiian rights. In Ua Pau, Uncle Michael creates Native Hawaiian artifacts for tourists in the role of, as he puts it, a "cultural practitioner." He has undergone a transformation toward peaceful acceptance of his family and their struggles. The title of the play, "it is finished," seems to reflect Uncle Michael's attitude toward the pain of the past. A series of flashbacks demonstrate the rage Uncle Michael felt at his cousin Alika's choices that stand in contrast to the counsel he offers both his cousin and his niece Stevie-Girl in the spirit of compassion and reconciliation. When Uncle Michael finds out Stevie-Girl isn't Hawaiian, he embraces her whole-heartedly.
alika kealoha
The hotel Alika manages represents the concerns many Native Hawaiians have about the tourism industry, including the ways it can perpetuate cultural appropriation and economic inequity. Some members of Alika's family have considered him a "sell-out" to his culture. Internally, Alika seems to be tormented by the tension between selling out and surviving. A series of flashbacks of Alika as a young boy portray the passing down of anger, toxic masculinity and addiction from his father, who also struggled to keep his family out of poverty. When Alika finds out Stevie-Girl isn't his cousin's biological daughter, he rejects her violently.
Diversity Fellows
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Resources
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Episode 1: Introduction & First Impressions (16:57)
Background, author discussion, and students' first impressions of play.
Episode 2: Teacher Chat (11:46)
Alex Salinas-Nakanishi and Bill Spradlin discuss their impressions of the play and students' responses.
Episode 3: What is Culture? (20:03)
Jordan from Kapi'olani CC & Noel from Kaimuki HS discuss themes of cultural identity in the play and perform a scene with analysis.
Episode 4: Symbolism and Colonialism (8:52)
Mazie and Kimi from Kapi'olani CC and Kristen from Kaimuki HS discuss symbolic elements in the play and perform a scene with analysis.
Episode 5: The Roots of Anger (12:18)
Dana and Jason from Kapiʻolani CC and Michelle from Kaimuki HS discuss where anger comes from and strategies for addressing one of the most difficult human emotions.