Stories of Aloha: Homegrown Treasures of Hawai'i
“So what is Hawai'i, one might ask,” muses the actor Richard Chamberlain. “Or a truer question would be, who is Hawai'i?”
Chamberlain’s trenchant ponderings, in his foreword to a new book, get to the heart of Hawai'i: its people. In describing the people of Hawai'i as “Hawai'i’s greatest treasures,” Chamberlain, a 25-year resident of the Islands, eloquently opens Stories of Aloha: Homegrown Treasures of Hawai'i with a paean to the “easy-to-miss, behind-the-glamour human activities that happily enrich our Island heritage.”
In the 264-page softcover, local author Jocelyn Fujii reaches deep into the matrix of Hawai'i’s neighborhoods and shines the spotlight on the mom-and-pop businesses, cultural icons, and remarkable people of her Island home. Brett Uprichard, well-known photographer and editor from Honolulu Publishing Co., took most of the photographs in the book and collaborated with Fujii on the project.
Stories of Aloha is a compilation or more than 130 profiles and essays that appeared in Spirit of Aloha, the inflight magazine of Aloha Airlines that was published by Honolulu Publishing Company. Fujii wrote for every issue of the magazine from 1985 to 2008, when the airline closed, and culled from her hundreds of articles the selection that appears in this book.
“This book has several layers,” says the author. “It remembers Aloha Airlines, which served Hawai'i for 62 years. It also honors the cultural practitioners and small family businesses who helped build Hawai'i, many of them through a lot of struggle and multiple generations. Most of those in the book had never been written about before but were the mainstay of our neighborhoods. And finally, this is a way of saying thank-you to the Aloha Airlines employees. Some of them contributed recipes, which were the most popular feature of the magazine, and we are happy to include them in the book.” Part of the proceeds from sales of this book will go to the Lokahi for Aloha Financial Assistance Fund for former Aloha employees.
Stories of Aloha: Homegrown Treasures of Hawai'i is 8.75 inches wide by 8 inches high and covers all the major islands of Hawai'i. Each story includes the original date of publication, the original photo and slightly re-edited original story, and an update on the business and subject.
“It was a challenge contacting everyone to obtain permission,” Fujii continues. “We weren’t able to include all the stories we had wanted to, but we had a 93 percent success rate in our search for contact information and permission, which is extraordinary.”
Fujii describes her subjects as “architects of some of the most meaningful rituals of everyday life in Hawai'i.” There are farmers and artists, hula masters and wood turners, lau hala weavers and fishermen. Some are long gone and are remembered for their timeless contributions to life in Hawai'i. She writes in her introduction, “Not all of the stories are on the mom-and-pops of Hawai'i. Many are profiles of cultural treasures and remarkable individuals who bring inspiration, wisdom, and the message of strength and resilience so deeply needed at this time.”
Hawai'i residents will no doubt recognize some of their favorites among the plate-lunch diners, saimin shrines, neighborhood bakers, and country stores that people the pages of this book. As Fujii notes on the front flap of the book, “In the modest heroism of these extraordinary people, the true story of Hawai’i emerges. It’s a story of building legacies, neighborhood by neighborhood, generation by generation. In the fragile and rapidly changing landscape of twenty-first-century Hawai’i, a portrait of strength emerges.
“This is a story of those who define Hawai’i.
“This is a story of Aloha.”
The book, published by Hula Moon Press, retails for $19.95 and is available at select outlets throughout Hawai'i and at www.hulamoonpress.com.
