Osorio, Benjamin, Kame’eleihiwa

by Alex

Dude. The other day I blogged what I thought was a felicitous congruence between Walter Benjamin and Jonathan Osorio. The passage from Osorio that I thought was so cool was this:

Ka wa mamua and ka wa mahope are the Hawaiian terms for the past and future, respectively. But note that ka wa mamua (past) means the time before, in front, or forward. Ka wa mahope (future) means the time after or behind. These terms do not merely describe time, but the Hawaiians’ orientation to it. We face the past, confidently interpreting the present, cautiously backing into the future, guided by what our ancestors knew and did. -Jon Osorio, Dismembering Lahui p.7

But then I was also reading Native Land and Foreign Desires by Lilikala Kame’eleihiwa, which was published a full decade before Osorio’s book, when I ran across this passage:

It is interesting to note that in Hawaiian, the past is referred to as ka wa mamua, or “the time in front or before.” Whereas the future, when thought of at all, is Ka wa mahope, or “the time which comes after or behind.” It is as if the Hawaiian stands firmly in the present, with his back to the future, and his eyes fixed upon the past, seeking historical answers for present-day dilemmas. Such an orientation is to the Hawaiian an eminently practical one, for the future is always unknown, whereas the past is rich in glory and knowledge. – Lilikala Kame’eleihiwa, Native Land, Foreign Desires, p. 22-23

Ouch. I’m not sure exactly how that happened, but if I were Osorio I would have quoted Kame’eleihiwa instead of more or less copying that passage. Since Osorio knows Kame’eleihiwa and her work quite well (they teach together), its particularly surprising to see this kind of slippage.