"Encountering History Using Innovative and Disruptive Narratives,"

In partnership with the American Antiquarian Society and with support from Mass Humanities, the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives will be presenting "Encountering History using Innovative and Disruptive Narratives," a commanding week-long humanities discussion panel program in locations throughout Massachusetts.

The discussion panels of distinguished scholars in humanities will explore new texts, current research, and thoughtful responses to the Bicentennial of the departure of the Congregationalist missionaries to the "Sandwich Isles" in 1819.

Host institutions include:

• Phillips Academy, Andover, MA - October 3, 6:30 pm
• Williams College, Williamstown, MA - October 7, 7:30 pm
• the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA - October 8, 7:00 pm
• Congregational Library and Archives, Boston, MA - October 9, 3:00 pm

The program will include local New England scholars and Dr. Noelani Arista who is traveling from the University of Hawaiʻi, to discuss her new book, The Kingdom and the Republic: Sovereign Hawaiʻi and the Early United States. Discussions will be organized around the presentation of "My Name is ʻŌpūkahaʻia," a one-person play written by Moses Goods that sets the story of ʻŌpūkahaʻia into a narrative of Hawaiian agency.

This story, historically used in New England to recruit missionaries and provide funding for the mission to the Sandwich Islands, is at its core, a Hawaiian story. As the first Native Hawaiian Christian, today ʻŌpūkahaʻia is the subject of an intense debate about his role in Hawaiʻi's history.

"The discussions are an extraordinary way to create an exchange between scholars from Hawaiʻi and New England," says Dr. Neal V. Hitch, Executive Director of HMH. "The goal is to create an opportunity to discuss the conceptualization of indigenous language and how language is encountered in a museum setting."  For more information, please visit www.missionhouses.org or view the Press Kit here.