A Traditional Leaders Forum is underway as part of the Festival of the Pacific Arts and Culture, or FestPAC.
Traditional leaders from Fiji, Aotearoa, Sāmoa and Hawaiʻi are building on a history of diplomacy among Pacific nations dating back to the reign of King David Kalākaua.
The last decades of the 19th century were a period of imperial expansion with European and American powers making claims across the Pacific. In response, King David Kalākaua set out to establish a Polynesian Confederacy, said Kealani Cook, an associate professor of history at the University of Hawaiʻi West Oʻahu.
“So the initial goal was actually a pan-Asian, pan-Pacific confederacy of everyone who was left independent because it was pretty clear that everyone was on the table at this point,” Cook said. “And the only way they saw us getting off the table was by pulling everyone together."
Cook is the author of "Return to Kahiki: Native Hawaiians in Oceania," a book exploring Hawaiian initiatives to develop relationships with other Pacific Islanders from 1850 to 1907, including Kalākaua's plans for a Polynesian Confederacy. By 1874, Hawaiʻi, Sāmoa and Tonga were the only independent major island groups in the Pacific following the British takeover of Fiji.
“So in 1884, Kalākaua and his minister of foreign affairs sent out a diplomatic protest basically calling out the world powers for being increasingly invasive in the Pacific,” Cook said. "And it was ignored by basically everyone they sent it to. That’s sort of the first step and then the next step is in 1886 they start planning to send a diplomatic legation to Sāmoa and Tonga.”
In less than a month of Hawaiian diplomats arriving in Apia, the Samoan King Malietoa Laupepa signed a Treaty of Confederacy with Hawaiʻi in February 1887. But back home in Honolulu, a group of white settlers were preparing a coup.
“They’re saying the same sort of thing that the foreign powers are saying, 'How dare Hawaiʻi meddle in international politics? That is for empires to do. Hawaiʻi is not an empire,'” Cook said. “That is one of the things that they are actually arguing is proof that this sort of coup has to happen.”
The coup happened a few months later in July 1887 with the forced signing of the Bayonet Constitution, which stripped the monarchy of much of its authority. The diplomatic legation in Sāmoa was recalled and they never made it to Tonga.
Kalākaua’s attempts at a Polynesian Confederacy may have failed but Cook said it sets a historical precedent for movements toward integration in the Pacific today.
“It creates the opportunity for peace, it creates the opportunity for friendship, and it creates the opportunity for alliance. So I think that an understanding that even if those contemporary ties are not there, there’s always a chance to build off of the previous ties.”
