Contact: fujikane@hawaii.edu
In this era of late liberal settler colonialism, cartography as a methodology is critical to rearticulating our radically contingent relationships with the living lands, seas, and skies. Capital fears abundance because it must manufacture the perception of scarcity to generate markets. By contrast, mapping abundance is an urgent insistence on life in the face of corporate-induced climate change. The struggle for a planetary future calls for a profound epistemological shift. Indigenous ancestral knowledges are now providing a foundation for movements against climate change, one based on Indigenous economies of abundance as opposed to capitalist economies of scarcity. As settler colonial cartographies map thresholds between life and nonlife in ways that have devastating effects for the planet, these exhausted cartographies of capital are being transformed by the cartographies of Kanaka Maoli and settler ally artists, writers, and activists who map abundance, knowing that restorative changes have exponential effects. In this way, mapping abundance refuses to succumb to capital’s logic that we have passed an apocalyptic threshold of no return. Vital to decolonial futures is the Kanaka Maoli art of kilo as it is practiced at restoration projects in Hawaiʻi at taro pondfields, fishponds, and waterways. Kilo is the intergenerational observation of the elemental forms, recording the laws of these forms in moʻolelo (storied history), oli (chants) and mele (song). Kilo cultivates a decolonial love for lands, seas and skies that transforms climate events into renewed possibilities for abundance.
My writing and research engage synchronic sets of practices: those that challenge the operations of the US occupying/settler state, and those that enact a future beyond it. Praxis is a critical part of my research, and I am actively involved in land struggles against urban and industrial development of Kanaka ‘Ōiwi sacred and storied places in Lualualei Valley, Waiāhole, Kalihi and Mauna Kea, as well as in other places where people live their vision of an independent and sustainable Hawai‘i.
I have co-edited with Jonathan Okamura Asian Settler Colonialism: From Local Governance to the Habits of Everyday Life in Hawai‘i (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2008).
In this collection of essays, Native Hawaiian and settler contributors examine Asian settler colonialism as a constellation of the colonial ideologies and practices of Asian Americans as settlers who currently support the broader structure of the U.S. settler state. Premised on a critical distinction between Hawaiians, who have a genealogical connection to land in Hawai‘i, and non-Hawaiians, who are settlers whose genealogical ties lie elsewhere, the contributors examine Asian settler colonialism in essays ranging from analyses of Japanese, Korean, and Filipino settlement to accounts of Asian settler practices in the legislature, the prison industrial complex, and the U.S. military to critiques of Asian settlers’ representations of Hawai‘i in literature and the visual arts.
My new book, Mapping Abundance for a Planetary Future: Kanaka Maoli and Critical Settler Cartographies in Hawaiʻi, was published by Duke University Press in 2021.
https://www.dukeupress.edu/mapping-abundance-for-a-planetary-future
Publications
To access publications, go to:
https://hawaii.academia.edu/CandaceFujikane
Book
Candace Fujikane, Mapping Abundance for a Planetary Future: Kanaka Maoli and Critical Settler Cartographies in Hawaiʻi. Durham: Duke University Press, February 2021.
Edited Volumes:
Candace Fujikane and Jonathan Okamura, eds. Asian Settler Colonialism: From Local Governance to the Habits of Everyday Life in Hawai‘i. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2008.
Candace Fujikane and Jonathan Okamura, eds. Whose Vision? Asian Settler Colonialism in Hawai‘i. Spec. issue of Amerasia Journal 26:2 (2000).
Articles and Book Chapters:
“Restoring Elemental Cartographies and Kuleana Land Titles: The Landback Movement at Kauaʻula, Maui.” Indigenous Mapping. Eds. Katherine Parker, Santiago Munoz Arbelaez, Natchee Barnd, Edson Krenak, Joy Slappnig, forthcoming.
M. Kaliko Baker, Mary Tuti Baker, Candace Fujikane, “Kanaka Maoli Radical Resurgence: Walking the ʻĀina Past, Present, and Future.” Cultural Studies in the Interregnum. Eds. Laura Kwak, Beenash Jafri, Anne Donlon, Robert Carley, Stefanie A. Jones, Chris Alen Sula. Temple University Press, forthcoming.
“Cartographies of Kanaloa: Inundation and Restoration.” Oceanic Ways of Knowing. Ed. Donna Honarpisheh. Miami: Institute of Contemporary Art, forthcoming.
“Asian Settlers in a Decolonial and Abolitionist Movement: Honoring Mauna a Wākea and the Laws of the Elements.” In Contemporary Asian American Activism. Eds. Diane Wong and Mark Tseng-Putterman. New York: New York University Press, forthcoming.
“ʻTo Breathe the Akua’: Aloha ʻĀina in the Poetry and Activism of Haunani-Kay Trask.” The Work, Art, and Activism of Haunani-Kay Trask. Eds. Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua and kuʻualoha hoʻomanawanui. A special issue of the American Indian Culture and Research Journal 46:1 (2023): 73–98.
“In Memoriam: Haunani-Kay Trask.” Journal of Asian American Studies 25:1 (February 2022): 131–139.
“Mapping Abundance on Mauna a Wākea as a Practice of Ea.” No ka Pono o ka Lāhui. Eds. Erin Kahunawaikaʻala Wright and Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua. A spec. issue of Hūlili: Multidisciplinary Research on Hawaiian Well-Being 11:1 (2019): 23-54.
Kuʻualoha hoʻomanawanui, Candace Fujikane, Aurora Kagawa-Viviani, Kerry Kamakaoka‘ilima Long and Kekailoa Perry. “Teaching for Maunakea: Kiaʻi Perspectives” Asian American and Pacific Islander Activism. Ed. Diane Fujino. A special issue of Amerasia Journal, vol. 46 (2019): 271–276. Reprinted in Japanese as “Maunakea no tameno kōgi: Kiai no shiten マウナケアのための講義：キアイ（守り⼈）の視点.” Translated by Megumi Chibana／ 知花愛実. Ekkyo Hiroba ／越境広場 no. 7 (2020): 51-58.
“Huakaʻi Kakoʻo no Waiʻanae Environmental Justice Bus Tour.” Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawaiʻi, edited by Hokulani Aikau and Vernadette Gonzalez. Durham: Duke University Press, 2019.
"Against the Yellowwashing of Israel: The BDS Movement and Liberatory Solidarities Across Settler States." Flashpoints for Asian American Studies, edited by Cathy Schlund-Vials. Fordham University Press, 2017.
"Mapping Wonder in the Māui Moʻolelo on the Moʻoāina: Growing Aloha ʻĀina Through Indigenous and Settler Affinity Activism." Rooted in Wonder: Tales of Indigenous Activism and Community Organizing. Eds. Aiko Yamashiro and Bryan Kuwada. A special issue of Marvels and Tales: Journal of Fairy Tale Studies 30:1 (June 2016): 45-69.
"Restoring Independence and Abundance on the Kulāiwi and ʻĀina Momona." Pacific Currents. Eds. Paul Lyons and Ty Kāwika Tengan. A special issue of the American Quarterly 67:3 (September 2015): 969-985.
“Asian American Critique and Moana Nui 2011: Securing a Future Beyond Empires, Militarized Capitalism and APEC.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 13:2 (June 2012): 189-210.
“A Story of Displacement,” (online), KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, June 2011, http://kahea.org/blog/a-story-of-dispacement.
“Introduction: Asian Settler Colonialism in the U.S. Colony of Hawai‘i.” Eds. Candace Fujikane and Jonathan Okamura, eds. Asian Settler Colonialism: From Local Governance to the Habits of Everyday Life in Hawai‘i. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2008.
“Foregrounding Native Nationalisms: A Critique of Antinationalist Sentiment in Asian American Studies.” Asian American Studies After Critical Mass. Ed. Kent Ono. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004.
“Il colonialismo stanziale degli asiatici alle Hawai‘i e il ruolo dei nazionalismi anticoloniali nativi negli Asian American Studies.” Trans. of “Asian Settler Colonialism in Hawai‘i: Foregrounding Anticolonial Native Nationalisms in Asian American Studies.” Trans. by Incoronata Inserra and Donatella Izzo. Hawai‘i al di là del mito. Eds. Incoronata Inserra and Donatella Izzo. A special issue of Ácoma 29-30 (Spring-Fall 2004), 121-133.
“Introduction: Asian Settler Colonialism in Hawai‘i.” Whose Vision? Asian Settler Colonialism in Hawai‘i. Eds. Candace Fujikane and Jonathan Okamura. Spec. issue of Amerasia Journal 26:2 (2000): xv-xxii.
“Sweeping Racism under the Rug of ‘Censorship’: The Controversy over Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s Blu’s Hanging.” Whose Vision? Asian Settler Colonialism in Hawai‘i. Eds. Candace Fujikane and Jonathan Okamura. Spec. issue of Amerasia Journal 26:2 (2000): 158-194. Reprinted in The Japanese American Contemporary Experience in Hawai‘i. Ed. Jonathan Okamura. Spec. issue of Social Process in Hawai‘i 41 (2002). Reprinted in Major Problems in Asian American History. Eds. Lon Kurashige and Alice Yang Murray. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co, 2003.
“Reimagining Development and the Local in Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre.” Women in Hawai‘i: Sites, Identities, and Voices.” Eds. Joyce N. Chinen, Kathleen O. Kane and Ida M. Yoshinaga. Spec. issue of Social Process in Hawai‘i 38 (1997): 1-177. Reprinted in American Poets and Politics. Spec. issue of Anglistica 2:1 (1998): 125-155.
“Asian American Literature.” Co-written with David L. Eng. The Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage: A Reader's Companion to the Writers and Their Works, from Antiquity to the Present. Ed. Claude Summers. New York: Holt, 1995.
Areas of Interest
Hawaiʻi literatures; Asian American lit & theory; Kanaka Maoli & critical settler cartographies; Indigenous knowledges & climate change; decolonial & abolitionist futures; critical ethnic studies; ecocriticism; cultural studies
Awards
- Chancellor's Citation for Meritorious Teaching, 2004
- Association for Asian American Studies Engaged Scholar Award, 2020
Education
BA, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 1990
PhD, UC Berkeley, 1996
Courses
Spring Semester 2025
- ENG-372: Asian American Literature
- ENG-472: Studies:Cultural Identities & Literature
Fall Semester 2024
- ENG-370: Literatures of Hawai’i
- ENG-735Q: Asian American Literature and Theory: Asian American Narratives of Relationality and Climate Change
Spring Semester 2024
- ENG-372: Asian American Literature
- ENG-388: Literature and the Environment
Fall Semester 2023
- ENG-320: Introduction to English Studies
- ENG-370: Literatures of Hawai’i
Spring Semester 2023
- ENG-320: Introduction to English Studies
- ENG-388: Literature and the Environment