19th Century Imperialism: Hawaiian

This documentary, Hawaiian, demonstrates imperialism from the Hawaiian's perspective at the time. According to this film, surfing started out in Hawaii before it moved across the globe. As one of the main events of the documentary, there is a very famous surfing contest. People from across the world came to Hawaii to surf on a famous surfer's (Eddie Aikau) beach, Waimea Bay. Eddie tried to win the contest many times, but kept failing. This symbolizes imperialism in that people from across the world came in and took Hawaiian culture. It was frustrating for the viewer, because all we wanted was for the people from Australia and the states to leave, because they weren't getting the deeper meaning of surfing that the Hawaiians had. Most Hawaiians have a special connection with the ocean that others didn't have, and many people took that for granted. This shows how the Hawaiians could've felt when the US came in and took their crops, land, and culture away from them.

                                                                        Eddie Aikau