Kaona: Hawaiin Rhetoric

What I found interesting in Brandy Nalani McDougall and Georganne Nordstrom’s article “Kaona as Rhetorical Action” is the concept of kaona and how it is used as a rhetorical device to add layers of meaning to a text. While reading I discovered how little I know about Hawaiian culture, history, and rhetoric, overall. I found that Queen Lili’uokalani’s tactics were quite masterful and important to the conception of rhetoric as a whole. Hawaiian rhetoric becomes a key “survivance” form of rhetoric because of issues surrounding colonization and the censorship of native languages.

I had no idea that settlers attempted to ban the native language because of its sexual innuendos, metaphors, and allusions. What I found great about this article is how Hawaiian rhetoricians employ kaona to embed pieces of valuable information within a composition, as if to create a story within a story, in an attempt to preserve cultural values, and the audience loves this. I love this. It’s why we read critically and try to read between the lines, if you will; we like to discover meanings that might not have been consciously intended by the author. Sometimes the meaning of a text is obvious, but there are threads of different sorts of concerns and contexts layered throughout.

The concept of kaona as a rhetorical tactic is what I found most valuable in the reading. “If the composer has skillfully crafted the kaona (as demanded by the

audience), those audience members who are the most knowledgeable of the

kaona’s subject would find the most layers of meaning” (McDougall and Nordstrom101). Here the authors want to show the reader the intellectual and rhetorical value of kaona. Additionally McDougall and Nordstrom cite a passage by Lilikala- K. Kame‘eleihiwa: “there are always several layers of kaona in any good example of Hawaiian prose,” which is a great passage because I think that the same could be said for any great piece of prose. 

As far as this text relates with previous class readings, it relates closest with the research of "rhetorical survivance" and "rhetorical sovereignty" of Malea Powell and Scott Richard Lyon's but I also found some relation with that of the Egyptian concept of 'Maat,' in the sense that kaona is a sort of culture wide understanding, and rhetorical device that can be used to elevate and empower a speaker or writer.

Overall, I really enjoyed this reading and I got some great insight into rhetorical tactics from it.