Day 8...Hawaiian Plantation Village

Colleen and I visited the Plantation Village which, as it stands today is a replica of the actual village that the sugar plantation workers lived in. Hawaii's Plantation Village is an outdoor history museum that tells the
story of life on Hawaii's Sugar Plantations (c. 1850-1950). The Village
includes restored buildings and replicas of plantation structures such
as houses of various ethnic groups, community buildings such as the
plantation store, infirmary, community bathhouse, and camp office. When the Polynesians arrived in Hawaii they brought sugar cane plants with them that thrived quite well on the Hawaiian Islands.  With the arrival of the missionaries in the 1800's they saw the opportunity for trade and wealth by harvesting the sugar cane.  As the industry grew it became apparent that the natives to the islands could not keep up with the harvest necessitating the recruitment of immigrants to work the plantation.  These workers came from all parts of the world but the primary countries were China, Portugal, Japan, Okinawa, Korea, Puerto Rico and the Phillipines.  The Plantation built the homes for the immigrants and separated them into camps by ethnic origin.  The premise to this was to let the immigrants celebrate customs to their own cultures but in reality it was designed to control them so they did not organize labor groups similar to Europe and the U.S.  This was the beginning of the multi-cultural society that makes up today's Hawaii.  The photo above is of the common grocery on the plantation.

 

When we arrived we viewed an orientation video and were surrounded by these beautiful quilts.  Quite a fitting spot for Kolina (Colleen's Hawaiian name), isn't it?

Over the years as the village developed as a society, each culture excelled in their heritage.  This photo depicts the introduction of the martial artists to world competition.  Even though the Artists were immigrants from other countries that were already represented, Hawaii was allowed to enter as its own sovereign nation.