Born and raised in the most multicultural state in the union, President Barack Obama bears the indelible stamp of his native Hawai‘i. Stu Glauberman and Jerry Burris’s book, The Dream Begins: How Hawai‘i Shaped Barack Obama (Watermark Publishing, 2009), is a coming-of-age story set in Hawai‘i’s storied “melting pot”—a revealing look at the island state that is surely a core part of what makes Obama tick.

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Tattooing in the Marshall Islands Dirk H.R. Spennemann The first scholarly compilation on the history, progression and demise of the traditionally intricate art of Marshallese tattooing. This book richly documents this type of tattooing as an art, describing its incredible ornamental and elaborate [...]
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Surfing is worldwide, but its roots are in Hawaii. From its island home, the sport has spread internationally in the last one hundred years. As surfing has grown, so has the interest in its history. Bishop Museum Archives in Honolulu holds the largest collection of historic photos in Hawaii. From th [...]
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Written by Daniel Kaha'ulelio, a native fisherman of the Lahaina region, this is perhaps the most detailed narrative pertaining to fishing customs, sources of fish, and methods of procurement. It appeared in 1902 as a series of articles in the Hawaiian language newspaper, Ka Nupepa Kuokoa. Kaha'ulel [...]
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Kepelino, like native Hawaiian historians Malo, Kamakau, and Papa 'I'i, worked in the mid-19th century to record Hawaiian historical, cultural, and religious knowledge for future generations. He wrote during a time of great intellectual ferment among Native Hawaiians, creating the bulk of his work b [...]
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For centuries, Hawaiian warriors practiced the martial art of lua under a veil of secrecy. They were as expert, renowned, and revered as the military special forces of today. With the changing times, the number of those extensively trained in lua declined and it became a lost art. By the late 1980s, [...]
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Doctor’s new book proposes Hawaii’s unique universal medical care system for all Americans. Today’s health care system is in a crisis. Many authorities suggest that America would be better off moving towards a national health care system. But parts of America–specifically Hawaii–already have one. In this provocative book, Dr. Tabrah shows how such a system was developed and maintained in Hawaii, and explores how it can benefit the rest of the country.

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My last post was a Wish List of novelists I’d like to hear in person Here’s a list of nonfiction writers I’d like to see, either at the Hawaii Book and Music Festival, or in a subscription series in Hawaii.

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The sand beach that stretches nearly a mile beyond the Kalaupapa wharf was always laid smooth by the tide. Hansen’s disease plays havoc with feet, ulcerating them, crippling them. Such feet walk poorly. And in sand they cannot walk at all. Most patients in Henry’s time left no footprints in that golden sand.

In 1936 ten-year-old Henry was taken from his family on the Island of Hawai‘i and sent to Kalihi Hospital on O‘ahu. He was later transferred to Kalaupapa on the rugged north coast of Moloka‘i, where he has spent most of the past 65 years in this remote village with a tragic history as a Hansen’s disease colony. During its century as a virtual prison, more than 8,000 people were exiled to Kalaupapa, until the introduction of sulfone drugs in the 1940s. Today fewer than 20 patients remain.

No Footprints in the Sand: A Memoir of Kalaupapa by Henry Nalaielua with Sally-Jo Bowman is one of only a few memoirs ever shared with the public by a Kalaupapa patient. Its intimacy and candor make it, in the words of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet W.S. Merwin, “a rare and precious human document.”

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This July day was insufferably hot in Honolulu. Henry Nalaielua sat perspiring at the grounds of ‘Iolani Palace, even though his chair was in the shade. He and some 500 others had listened all morning to prayers and hymns and speeches.

And then, near the end of the long ceremonies and ecumenical service, it was Nalaielua’s turn. The notes for his speech were under his ginger lei, in the pocket of his aloha shirt—his best blue one. He shuffled the few steps to the lei-draped lectern on hobbly feet that reminded him of his mission of honor. He had come to the palace from his home at Kalaupapa on Moloka‘i, where he was sent as a Hansen’s disease (leprosy) patient before World War II, and where he has lived most of his 70 years.

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