BP 3

A famous phrase all through out the world, “History is written by the victors.” All throughout history and even modern times we can see the validity in this quote. We can see it the native tribes losing their power and identity through their portrayal written in our history books. We can also see it in countries today. How North Korea twists their history books to paint America as the bad guys.

Haunani-Kay Trask goes on about how historians have over time twisted history. Trask talks about how she learned from her formal education that the native Hawaiians were portrayed in schools as “Pagan Hawaiians” who “did not read or write, were lustful cannibals, traded in slaves, and could not sing.” Now Trask is Hawaiian herself and has roots that go back to the native islanders. From her family she gets a different picture of how the natives truly were. In fact, all the above statements were false. The Hawaiians had verbal and written language. They’re culture was based off peace and nature. She even later gives us a power song about the disproval of the “whites” for taking what doesn’t belong to them.

Richard Cullen Rach goes on about how historians have this hypocritical outlook on studying history. One the first page he says, “One problem that came up immediately when I set out to write sonic history was the belief that, unlike a document, sound is ephemeral, going out of existence…” Some cultures are more reliant on sounds to express and describe their cultures. Rach mentions the African culture and how they brought that culture to the Americas several hundred years ago and has stayed relevant since. You can see the greatest impact was in music. James Paul Gee goes on to talk about “the literacy myth” quoting men like Plato and Socrates. Plato goes on about how you can take writing seriously, especially when it hasn’t been done in a group setting with multiple opinions. Plato further says, “Writing together with knowledge in the soul of the learner, capable of defending itself, and knowing how to speak and keep silent in relation to the people it should”. All these quotes can relate back to Trask’s “From a Native Daughter”. People have been known to twist history and contort it to help their own agendas. The “white” people’s portrayal was not at all accurate. Just like Plato says, they didn’t write together with the natives, but apart from them.