Response to Blood Quantum/Blood Quantum 2

Blood Quantum/Blood Quantum 2.

We chose Blood Quantum 2 by Naomi Losch to focus on for our Seminar as well as a brief touch on Blood Quantum. After reading both of the poems together I found Blood Quantum 2 a really interesting and controversial concept which made me want to know more.

The key them of “Blood Quantum” is generally a protest against an introduced law based in Hawaii allowing Persons of 50 percent Hawaiian blood or more were eligible to lease homestead lots for 99 years at $1 a year. The introduction of this law began a trend, majority of laws since then that have been created to help Hawaiians also were eligible only to those with 50% Hawaiian blood.

Both poems have been written to question the idea whether or not having a certain amount of blood in you is the most effective way to determine what ethnicity you represent yourself with, opposed to what culture you feel closest too and feel comfortable identifying yourself to.

Blood Quantum 2 has been written in a form of Pidgin Hawaiin/English. Naomi has written the poem in this way to create a question in the readers mind, asking whether or not the percent of blood you have through your vains is really how you can identify yourself, or if the culture you identify yourself with is deeper than just your DNA. The entire poem is imply a rhetorical question, and asking the reader to think, the poem even concludes with a rhetorical question…

“Cause you know Hawaiian kine stuff and can talk Hawaiian.
You sound jes’ like my gradfadda but you no look like.
No can tell who is Hawaiian now days, yeah?”

I found this section of the poem quite interesting and it made me think about what Naomi was trying to portray. The comment about “my gradfadda” made me believe Naomi was referring to the idea that you may not look as a Hawaiin is typically expected to look, as you might not have as much Hawaiian blood in your DNA, but if you have perhaps lived in Hawaii for majority of your lifetime, and you have experienced and embraced the true culture of Hawaii, the way you speak and how you act can portray you as just as much Hawaiian.

When the poem goes on further to say “No can tell who is Hawaiian now days, yeah?” I think this is her way of making a point that there really isn’t any specific way of identifying what identity other people represent, without knowing more about themselves individually.

It is a concept I have never really had to deal with myself. I have always considered myself simply just a “New Zealander” and have never really had any identity issues, but this poem made me think about it a little deeper. The idea was brought up during our seminar discussion about the “NZ/European” tick box option, an option I have always selected without a second thought, considering I am not “NZ/Maori” or any of the other options. But the more I thought about it after the discussion the more I realised I’m actually really not NZ/European at all! Not only have I ever been to Europe, I barely know anything about my European ancestry. I am a New Zealander, I think a lot of people if they thought about it would have the same thoughts as me. In my generation our roots to our European ancestry is developing more and more distant and I think with that development in mind there really should be just a “New Zealander” box option.

I think it’s a really interesting thought, whether or not your DNA really represents your identity, of course in some instances it does, but it’s not always the case.

Originally I never felt I related to the poem personally, but the more I analysed the issue the more I felt more connected to it. I had a friend in high school who was ½ Chinese and ½ Maori. Her father is Maori who she had no contact with and had only ever seen a few times as a young child. Her mother is Chinese so she always grew up with Chinese traditions and involved herself a lot in the culture. It really surprised me when we began the process of applying for universities because she was given a lot extra guidance and financial assistance as a result of her Maori decent. Something in which she had never embraced, yet she accepted everything without a thought. I felt as though it was almost taking advantage of something she didn’t deserve or hadn’t earned, I feel like there are a lot of people who are extremely passionate about the Maori culture even if there DNA contains little to none Maori ancestry, people who I thought would’ve deserved this treatment a bit more. But who am I to say that? I think that’s what Naomi Losch is trying to make readers think about.

I gained a lot from these poems. Originally I thought I couldn’t relate the poems, but I could understand them. Now I can see from my own experiences what she felt and why she has such a passion to get her point heard. I think there needs to be a better solution for identifying how people receive Ethnicity benefits rather than just by what’s in someone’s blood and I hope someday a more fair solution is created so nobody feels as though they miss out on something they genuinely deserve.