On November 10, Professor Maile Arvin (University of Utah) presented a virtual research talk on the history of institutionalizing Native Hawaiian children and other children of color in Territorial-era Hawai‘i (1900-1959). In the talk, Dr. Arvin examined the history of three connected institutions operated by the territory of Hawai‘i: the Waiale’e Industrial School for Boys, the Kawailoa Training School for Girls, and the Waimano Home for the Feeble-Minded. “Social science provided the territorial government language and ‘evidence’ with which to argue that their practices of institutionalization were modern, progressive, and humane, even when the official reports of those institutions suggested otherwise,” Arvin explains. 

Dr. Arvin’s most recent book, Possessing Polynesians: The Science of Settler Colonial Whiteness in Hawai‘i and Oceania (Duke University Press, 2019) received honorable for the Association of Asian American Studies Book Award in History.

Watching the recording here or below.