In search of souls : the cultural interaction between Hiram Bingham Jr., the Hawaiians and the Gilbertese through mission contact 1857-1903

Abstract

In the late nineteenth century, a diverse group of people were to be found on the coral atolls of the Gilbert Islands. These people included, besides the Islanders themselves, English, American and Chinese traders, American, native Hawaiian and English Protestant missionaries, French Catholic priests and English officials of the British Government. An intricate and complicated play of action took place as these people met and interacted on the tiniest of atolls straddling the Equator. Consequently the action these people took was obvious - obvious in that it was observable but not obvious in that it was understood. The meaning the actors gave it was often misinterpreted or completely lost. The thesis focuses on one act from that play - the advent of American and native Hawaiian Protestant missionaries who first came to the Gilbert Islands in 1857. Hence representatives from three distinct cultures, American, Hawaiian and Gilbertese, met and interacted in the Gilbert Islands through American Protestant mission contact. The focus of the thesis is on the life of Hiram Bingham Jr., son of one of the original Boston Protestant missionaries to Hawaii, who was to become the pioneer missionary to the Gilbert Islands in November 1857. The tensions within Bingham Jr. himself are explored. On one level, there was the choice between becoming a man of wealth and power or becoming a man of God. On another level, Bingham faced a dilemma in either following his father's footsteps and living a secure life in Hawaii as a pastor or in making a name for himself as pioneer missionary in the harsh environment of the Gilbert Islands. On yet another level, Bingham had to decide between his yearnings for commendation from his father and the Mission Board at Boston and his desire to do exactly what he wanted. Bingham, in fact, became a missionary, went to the Gilbert Islands and ran the mission there to his own design and desire. Like so many other Europeans or Americans, Bingham repudiated the desire for a predictable life in a familiar setting and opted to make his fame in little-known islands of the Pacific. He would become a ’first' even more than his father who, after all, had travelled to Hawaii as part of a group. Bingham was hungry for success. Most Islanders on Abaiang and Tarawa saw little relevance in the particular type of Christianity that Bingham espoused and attempted to convey to them. For his part, Bingham had scant respect for them. They were interested in war and power struggles; he was interested in establishing a holy government which ruled for the common good. The Hawaiian missionaries were mid-way between their own fast disappearing culture and espousal of the white man's ways. They vainly attempted to mediate between the Islanders in the Gilberts and Bingham. The Islanders therefore confronted at least two different interpretations of Christianity: that of Bingham and that of the Hawaiians. So began a triangular set of relationships fraught with misunderstanding. The mission was a fiasco as a means of Christian conversion. Yet it nurtured changes in the various islands of the Gilberts. Different concepts on organization of society, identity, time, space and knowledge were presented to the Islanders. Many adopted new ways. These modifications paved the way for the establishment of the British Protectorate in 1892. Bingham saw all change as progress, and noting the changes occurring in the Gilbert Islands, attributed it all to his mission and refused to concede defeat.