Kanaka

Kanaka, a term applied by Europeans indiscriminately to all the South Sea Islanders, though it should properly be restricted to the eastern Polynesians, in whose language it has the meaning of "Men." Kanaka is the Hawaiian form of the word, the other chief dialectic variants being Tangata (Tonga group and Maori of New Zealand), Taata (Tahiti), Kenata, Kenana, and Enana (Marquesas). In all these dialects the word is used to indicate the natives themselves in contradistinction to the Haoc, i.e. strangers of all kinds, whites, blacks, and half-castes. At present Kanaka is applied more especially to the natives pressed into the service of the planters in Queensland, New Caledonia, and Fiji; it thus corresponds in the Pacific waters to the Coolie of the Indian Ocean.