Haunani-Kay Trask
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Haunani-Kay Trask Ph.D. (born October 3, 1949) is a California-born Native Hawaiian academic, activist, militant, documentarist and writer. Trask is a professor of Hawaiian Studies with the University of Hawaii System and has represented Native Hawaiians in the United Nations and various other global conferences. She is a noted author of several books of poetry and prose, Light in the Crevice Never Seen, Night Is a Sharkskin Drum and From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaii which is a collection of essays on the Hawaiian sovereignty movement. Trask produced Act of War: The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation, an award-winning film. She also has a public-access television program called First Friday.
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[edit] Background
Trask comes from a politically active family. Mililani B. Trask, her younger sister, was a trustee of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs created by the 1978 Hawaii State Constitutional Convention to administer lands held in trust for Native Hawaiians and use the revenue to fund Native Hawaiian programs. Trask's grandfather was heavily involved in labor and local politics through the Hawaii Democratic Party. Despite having been born in California, she is militant in her pro "Native Hawaiian" stances.
[edit] Education
Trask graduated from Kamehameha Schools in 1967. She then attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, earning her bachelor's degree in 1972, a master's degree in 1975 and a Ph.D. in political science in 1981. Her dissertation called Eros and Power: The Promise of Feminist Theory was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 1986.
[edit] Activism
Trask has at times been an outspoken and visible leader within the Hawaiian sovereignty movement. She opposes the tourism industry and the United States military presence in Hawaii. She identifies with other activists and leaders, most notably Malcolm X and the Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o. She also maintains a friendship with Ward Churchill. More recently Trask has spoken against the Akaka Bill. [1]
[edit] Poetry
Trask has faced criticism for her incendiary language.
Her work "Racist White Woman", featured in Light in the Crevice Never Seen, begins:
racist White Woman
I could kick
Your face, puncture
Both eyes.
You deserve this kind
Of violence.
[edit] Resources
- Official site
- Brief biographical note
- Biography and book reviews compiled by Kenneth R. Conklin, a sharp critic of Trask's
- A 1996 interview with an otherwise unidentified Canadian publication
- Franklin, Cynthia and Laura F. Lyons. "Land, Leadership, and Nation: Haunani-Kay Trask on the Testimonial Uses of Life Writing in Hawai'i", Biography, 27: 1, Winter 2004.
- "Trask Still Beats the Drum of Resistance", August 23, 2002, Asianweek.com
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