Environments of Settler Colonialism in Statehood-Era U.S. Cinematic Depictions of the Hawaiian Islands

This essay examines three U.S. films set in Hawaiʻi produced shortly after statehood: Blue Hawaii, Diamond Head, and Hawaii. It focuses on depictions of the natural environment and ways that non-human nature exerts agency in order to explore the cultural significance of attitudes toward nature in settler colonial narratives. It argues that nature plays a central role in the processes of settler colonialism depicted in these films. The films reveal how nature both supports and resists settler colonialism, engendering ambivalence in settler attitudes toward nature in Hawaiʻi.