Maile Arvin. Possessing Polynesians: The Science of Settler Colonial Whiteness in Hawai’i and Oceania.

Extract

Possessing Polynesians is an engrossing and finely detailed study of global settler colonialism focused on the Hawaiian case and the way it was foundationally sourced from the logic of what Maile Arvin calls “possession through whiteness.” It is a compelling thesis. Functionally, Arvin demonstrates the ways in which the white imperialist world inflected its particular anti-Black racism in the Oceanian islands by reinforcing a color line. Yet Arvin underscores that Polynesians, in particular, were considered exceptional Pacific peoples in that they were—in fact—regarded to be fundamentally white, or could become so by becoming extinct as a unique people. Possessing Polynesians elaborates and details all of these themes and arguments with incisive analyses of major historical markers as well as contemporary expressions of challenge. In effect, she shows how the “Polynesian Problem” was generated, elaborated, and how it persists and is contested in scientific, political, and artistic domains to the present day.