Kalaupapa: The Land of Forced and Eventual Voluntary Confinement

Kalaupapa is a place where its inhabitants were forced to live separated from their family and leave behind the life they once knew. Alone on a new island, the leprosy victims lived amongst each other. Although their first reaction were fear and loneliness, after a certain time at Kalaupapa the people started to fear the treatment of the outside world and preferred to live with other lepers. By analyzing Duke, Pono, other lepers from Kalaupapa in Shark Dialogues, and the historical figure, Father Damien, the common qualities of acceptance towards their eventual death was shown throughout the characters. Dealing with their harsh experiences on Kalaupapa (Duke and Father Damien) and the feeling of being alone (Pono), these people, both fictional and real, go through similar emotions.

Hansen’s disease, commonly known as leprosy, is an infection caused by bacteria that was greatly feared for being contagious and life threatening (CDC). In Hawai'i, Hansen’s disease was called ma'i Pākē (the Chinese sickness) since it came shortly after the Chinese immigrants arrived to the islands for work. The fear of Hansen’s disease caused the government of Hawai'i to send the lepers to the deserted area of Kalaupapa on Moloka'i Island. Kalaupapa, Moloka'i became the world’s first leper colony in 1866. This isolated area on Moloka'i became a small village for more than 8,000 leprosy patients. As Bloombaum notes, lepers, both cured and sick ones, never escaped the enforced isolation. This was how Molokaʻi received its nickname “The Lonely Island.”

As seen in Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport, Duke tries to hide and avoid being sent to Kalaupapa. At first he hides away with Pono in his family home while ignoring the neighbors’ whispers and murmurs of ma'i Pākē. He had inherited the disease from his father who eventually passed it on to his mother, siblings, cousins, and niece. Duke knew that he would find the sores on his body “in a matter of time” and eventually be “gone. All gone,” like his family members (107). He and Pono hide in the forests for as long as they can before he is found and sent away. Although Duke knows that he cannot hide in the forests for the rest of his life, he makes the best of his time with Pono. Every leper was taken away from their family and sent to Moloka'i by themselves, unless they allowed to bring a caretaker with them. After some time, Duke accepts the fact that he is never going to leave Kalaupapa. He does not try to escape Kalaupapa, he simply accepts his fate. It is Pono who has to visit him and try to hide herself so she can stay longer on the island. Even though Pono would never contract the disease, Duke refused to let her stay on the island.

Ashamed of the toll Hansen’s disease took on his body, Duke told Pono that he was “a horror. Not fit to look upon” (127). He tried to convince Pono to forget about him and explore the world and enjoy her life. Pono considered “whatever human thing [was] left of [him] goes with [Pono]” (127). He wanted Pono to live a life without him and get married so she would have a financially secure life and not have to worry about a dying man.

The leprosy eventually led to Duke’s denial of his existence to his own daughters and granddaughters. Even though his daughters were suffering to find out more about their past and yearning to know who their father was, Duke refused to let Pono mention his name or say he was at Kalaupapa. Duke knew if his daughters or granddaughters saw him with his “cursed, filthy mound of broken flesh” that they would be sick when they first saw him (25). Although he did love every daughter and granddaughter from afar, he wanted it to stay like that for as long as he could. He preferred to be non-existent and “die out of sight of the world” rather than to be seen in his condition (25).

As time passed, the healed lepers chose not to leave Kalaupapa. While Hawai'i has a strong familial bond where family is embraced as a basic unit of society and the best form of human expression, these locals and natives started to prefer to stay away from their family remaining instead in Kalaupapa with the other lepers. When they were given the chance to leave the island and go back to civilization, most of them came back to Kalaupapa. Healed lepers no longer felt like a part of their family or community. The healed lepers encountered hateful comments and alienation from their community and own family members. It was no longer about the family unit and staying together when they “shrieked and stared” at their disfigured family members. They lost their identity to their family and their place in society. Ashamed and saddened by their reactions and treatment in society, most of the healed lepers went back to Kalaupapa and formed communities with the other lepers. In Kalaupapa, the community formed their own family life which is uncommon for institutions (Bloombaum). Both the healed and patients married each other and lived their lives together.

The Kubler-Ross model of grief for one’s impending death gives a layout of the common characteristics of how people accept grief (National Hansen's Disease [Leprosy] Program). These stages are not only seen in Duke, but also Pono. The first stage is denial, which is seen when Pono and Duke hide in the forest. They cannot hide forever in their simple forest life where they scavenge for food. When Duke is sent to Kalaupapa and volunteers for experiments that might help eliminate the leprosy, he first thinks they will work and he will be healed. Stage two is anger, which is seen more in Pono. She is very bitter towards life and people after Duke is sent to Kalaupapa. The third stage, bargaining, is also portrayed through Pono as she tries to convince Duke to let her live in Kalaupapa. She tries her best to hide from the officials but she is found every time. Depression, the fourth stage, is shown when Pono feels empty and alone without Duke while she raises her daughters solo. Acceptance is the fifth stage and seen in every person’s different way of accepting their fate. The Hansen’s victims accepted the fate of never being accepted in society and dying a painful death. Duke eventually accepted the fact he would not be able to get healed while Pono refused to accept the fate life had given her. She made her own fate by finding ways to meet Duke.

Another individual with Hansen’s disease who voluntarily confines himself in Kalaupapa is Father Damien, a priest sent to help the lepers. Father Damien is an individual who did not want to leave Kalaupapa, although prior priests left after a few months. He felt it was his duty to help the sick and do God’s work. Father Damien was sent to Kalaupapa after he volunteered himself around 1873. His first thought of “the living cemetery that was Moloka'i” was that it needed to change (Grange). He aided with building houses for the patients and helped them find ways to sustain themselves. Father Damien started dressing wounds, building houses, churches, and health centers as soon as he arrived on Moloka'i (Murphy). He was the only Roman Catholic to be made a saint (Reporter). During the time Father Damien was on Kalaupapa, he worked with over 600 patients and eventually got the disease from being in close contact with them. Unlike other religious figures who went to help at Kalaupapa, Father Damien did not separate himself from the lepers. He shared his own things, ate with them, and cared for all the people that made him get Hansen’s disease. When he eventually died at forty-nine years of age from the disease, he simply accepted. Father Damien felt it was his job to help the patients of Kalaupapa even if it meant his own life. In the letter he wrote to his brother before he died, Father Damien states, "I am gently going to my grave. It is the will of God, and I thank Him very much for letting me die of the same disease and in the same way as my lepers. I am very satisfied and very happy."

There are still people with leprosy, now called Hansen’s disease, at Kalaupapa. Although the number is under twenty, the Hansen’s victims have the mindset of the previous patients who did not want to leave Kalaupapa. A man who was sent to Kalaupapa when he was twelve years old and is now approaching eighty, states the time he spent there was wonderful. He still enjoyed his time at Kalaupapa even though he was not able to use his hands and feet, and became blind by thirty. Although he was stranded there with other people, he came to love it (Daily Mail). One Hansen's disease victim believed that even though there was much sadness at Kalaupapa, he still found happiness there and refuses to leave.

Afflictions such as Hansen’s disease truly test the relationships between society and family members. It also shows the true nature of human beings, both their bad and good qualities. As seen in Pono, Duke, and Father Damien, people in these conditions either accept their fate or get mad and hate life. After analyzing the treatment of leprosy patients placed back in society, it is easy to see how hard it is for them be accepted by their own family members. When the patients (both healed and continuing sick) realize their lives will never be the same after dealing with Hansen’s disease, they begin their lives over again with people who are in similar situations as themselves.

Works Cited

Bloombaum, Milton, and Ted Gugelyk. "Voluntary Confinement among Lepers." Journal of Health and Social Behavior 11.1 (1970): 16. JSTOR. Web. 4 Feb. 2015.

"Hansen's Disease (Leprosy)." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 29 Apr. 2013. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

Davenport, Kiana. Shark Dialogues. New York: Ballantine, 1995. Print.

Grange, Kevin. "Exiled To Paradise." National Parks 86.3 (2012): 1-2. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Feb. 2015.

Knight, M. "What Is Leprosy?" The Leprosy Mission International, 2011. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.

Murphy, Daniel. "Contagious Spirit." U.S. Catholic 74.12 (2009): 47-48. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.

"National Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) Program." U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Feb. 2015.

Reporter, Daily Mail. "'We Were Stranded, but I Loved It': Inside the World's First Leper Colony Where the Patients Don't Want to Leave." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 17 Oct. 2012. Web. 4 Feb. 2015.