speciesbarocus:Father Damien (1889).> Photo: William Brigham.According to Alexandria Ocasio-Corte
speciesbarocus:Father Damien (1889).> Photo: William Brigham.According to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, this is how white supremacy looks like ^^She wrote in an Instagram post: “Even when we select figures to tell the stories of colonized places, it is the colonizers and settlers whose stories are told – and virtually no one else. Check out Hawaii’s statue [at the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall Collection]. It’s not Queen Lili’uokalani of Hawaii, the only Queen Regnant of Hawaii, who is immortalized and whose story is told. It is Father Damien […] This is what patriarchy and white supremacist culture looks like!”Father Damien worked for 16 years in Hawaii. He established leadership within the community to build houses, schools, roads, hospitals, and churches. He dressed residents’ ulcers, built a reservoir, made coffins, dug graves, shared pipes, and ate poi by hand with them, providing both medical and emotional support. After eleven years caring for the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of those in the leper colony, Father Damien contracted leprosy himself. He continued to work until he finally succumbed to the disease on 15 April 1889.King David Kalākaua bestowed on Damien the honor of “Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Kalākaua”. When Crown Princess Lydia Liliʻuokalani visited the leper colony to present the medal, she was reported as having been too distraught and heartbroken at the sight of the residents to read her speech. -- source link
#william brigham#1889#hawaii