"To All My Maka'āinana": Reggae, Food Sovereignty, and Indigenous Insistence in Hawai'i

Abstract: Throughout my research on reggae in Hawai'i, Kanaka Maoli foodways and food sovereignty unexpectedly emerged as an important theme in the lives of musicians and fans (around eight of my fifty-four interviewees), and I observed it in others I talked to during fieldwork. Although reggae is associated with resistance in a global context because it is Black music and mobilizes anticolonial and anticapitalist messages, it is not "Hawaiian enough" for many politically active Kānaka who are also interested in food sovereignty. The connection between reggae in Hawai'i and food sovereignty complicates the ways that academics typically relate resistance to Indigenous identity. Besides resistance, reggae in Hawai'i and food sovereignty go "naturally" together because they are quotidian culture for Kānaka Maoli. Insistence , rather than simply resistance , is a more accurate and potentially liberatory framework through which to understand the connection between reggae and food sovereignty in Hawai'i.