Archive for January, 2010
Read This Book.
Very few days pass, when ‘Iokepa and I are not asked to recommend books about Native Hawaiian history, spirituality, or culture.
‘Iokepa always answers: “Inette has written the book, Grandmothers Whisper. It’s circulating to publishers now.” My husband refuses to see that as self-serving because, “It’s her memoir, not mine.” Nevertheless…
When he and I get down to the brass tacks of recommending a written path into authentic Hawaiian history, it is not easy. To date there have been only three major books written by native historians that refute the skewed take of the missionary accounts–that European, Fun House looking-glass.
Now there is a fourth. ‘Iokepa was the first in our local library system to read it. We renewed it; I was the second. It is powerfully well written, flawlessly researched, and totally original.
Hawaiian Blood by J. Kehaulani Kauanui, published by Duke University Press tells a heartbreaking story of the arrival of racism, greed and unbelievable cruelty to these Islands. Who–you will ask when you read it–were the “barbarians” here?
Kauanui is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and American Studies at Wesleyan University. We do not know this woman. But we do know this work. ‘Iokepa cried, and felt his stomach grip at what he has already lived and known. Now we can read it.
This book is more than history. Kauanui steps up and describes the racism that defines, infects, and impedes the Kanaka Maoli (aboriginal Hawaiian) struggle for freedom– right now.
A Newspaper Interview.
Those of you who have followed this website know that ‘Iokepa acts always and only at the behest of his ancestors. These Grandmothers–long gone–direct his footfalls and his word choice.
For ten years, he and I lived on the beaches of these Islands without any source of income, among his often homeless people, in the face of an oppression that the Native Hawaiians experienced from the moment the first Calvinist missionaries wrote laws that created ownership where none ever existed (with the undisguised intention that this fertile Hawaiian land become their cash crop)–an oppression that continues to this moment.
For those ten years–and in these past two, when we have traveled and spoken of the Native Hawaiians, of their transcendent cultural gifts, and of their extreme suffering–print journalists have asked ‘Iokepa for interviews highlighting his choices and his life. The first to ask was Paul Curtis, here on Kaua’i, five years ago.
At each request, the Grandmothers have told him: “It is not the time.” ‘Iokepa listened.
That changed a few weeks ago. And on the day after Christmas (the first day of our thirteenth year together), Paul Curtis’ interview of ‘Iokepa appeared in the Garden Island newspaper, here on Kaua’i.
It was long: A forty inch story, with a fifteen inch sidebar. Below are the links to both stories. Enjoy. Let us know what you think.
http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2009/12/26/news/kauai_news/doc4b35cab04757f660855711.txt
http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2009/12/26/news/kauai_news/doc4b35cbbead606976439963.txt