Native vs. "Native"

In South Park’s newest episode, “Going Native,” Butters is sent to his homeland to get in touch with his roots and undergo a coming-of-age ritual that will help him release his anger. This episode overall is outlandish , but this episode does, however portray the ridiculousness of white individuals claiming to be “natives” to Hawaii (who are clearly tourists, or at least descendants of the original members of the Waikiki Outrigger and Surf club) who think they are entitled to rewards for being “native” to the island, i.e. visiting Kauai every year. I don’t know if South Park used the term “native” on purpose, or got it slightly confused with the term “locals,” but it still proves a point. People who call themselves “natives” or “locals” who have no true ties to the islands, other than their golf clubs are demonstrating an extreme disrespect to the true natives and locals of Hawaii. There is a Kama‘aina rewards program for people who live on the island, and these incentives are meant to boost the economy by making restaurants and other attractions more affordable so locals will visit them more often. It is also a nice incentive for having to put up with the masses of tourists that invade the island year-round. Though a very shallow insight to the Kama’aina rewards program, South Park does illustrate the ridiculousness of having a program that is so widely available that people who barely identify with the island can have access to it. All that’s needed is some form of local identification. The people who feel entitled to these programs are often those who stay on the island purely for the attractions, and not for the Hawaiian life itself, and South Park does a great job of portraying the outrageousness of the “native” reactions that could be invoked if tighter reigns were placed on the Kama’aina program. Like the Molokai man in the movie we watched last night in class said, to the local natives life is about living and providing for their families and keeping Hawaii accessible. It’s not about the rewards or incentives. This definitely serves as a nice contrast to the true Native portrayals we’ve read about, and though it was a little over the top (and not exactly the best SP episode), I think Trey and Matt of South Park did get their point across that the Kama’aina rewards program is stupid to include the self-entitled “locals” who think they’re native because they’ve been to a luau and drank native drinks, and that people can be extremely insensitive (and uneducated) to take on a title of “local” or “native” without truly knowing what it means to be either.

-Megan Saunders