Apple TV+'s 'Chief of War' Explores Colonialism From the Other Side
The indigenous language of the Hawaiian islands is Ōlelo Hawaiʻi, and it’s critically endangered. When sovereign nations are subject to colonialism, native languages are often suppressed, and government-run schools run by American missionaries and eventual “English only” policies in schools and government ensured that generations of Hawaiians were cut off from their native tongue – a deliberate strategy to ensure assimilation with and dependence on colonial hierarchy.
Chief of War, a new historical drama from Apple TV+, tells the story of the conflict that led to Hawaiian unification, primarily using the indigenous Hawaiian language. The significance of a major series using a critically endangered language so extensively throughout its nine episodes should not be overlooked. As Jason Momoa told The Globe & Mail about the use of indigenous dialogue, “Brother, that was the deal-breaker for us. We wouldn’t have been able to go home if we did this in English.”
Momoa and his creative partner and co-writer Thomas Pa'a Sibbett may have considered it a no-brainer to make Chief of War a Hawaiian-language series (the creators credit Awaiaulu, a company that specialises in Hawaiian translation, education, and publishing with the indigenous dialogue and language coaching), but very few studios or networks have been convinced to do so up until now.
