InThe Power of the Steel-tipped PenNoenoe K. Silva reconstructs the indigenous intellectual history of a culture where—using Western standards—none is presumed to exist. Silva examines the work of two lesser-known Hawaiian writers—Joseph Ho‘ona‘auao Knepu‘u (1824–ca. 1885) and Joseph Moku‘Mhai Poepoe (1852–1913)—to show how the rich intellectual history preserved in Hawaiian-language newspapers is key to understanding Native Hawaiian epistemology and ontology. In their newspaper articles, geographical surveys, biographies, historical narratives, translations, literatures, political and economic analyses, and poetic works, Knepu‘u and Poepoe created a record of Hawaiian cultural history and thought in order to transmit ancestral knowledge to future generations. Celebrating indigenous intellectual agency in the midst of US imperialism,The Power of the Steel-tipped Penis a call for the further restoration of native Hawaiian intellectual history to help ground contemporary Hawaiian thought, culture, and governance.
US
Noenoe K. Silva creates a model indigenous intellectual history of a culture where—using Western standards—none is presumed to exist by examining the work of two lesser-known Hawaiian language writers from the nineteenth-century whose prolific output across many genres created a record of Native Hawaiian cultural history and thought.
Noenoe K. Silva is Professor of Indigenous Politics at the University of Hawai‘i at Mnoa and author ofAloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism, also published by Duke University Press.
Ngig) wa Thiong’o is the author of numerous works of fiction, poetry, plays, and criticism, most recently,Birth of a Dream Weaver.
"Noenoe K. Silva’s latest book solidifies her reputation as the leading scholar of Native Hawaiian ilS=
![The Power Of The Steel-Tipped Pen: Reconstructing Native Hawaiian Intellectual H [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/1/7/6/2_6670774.jpg "The Power Of The Steel-Tipped Pen: Reconstructing Native Hawaiian Intellectual H [Paperback]")