Read Your Way Around Hawaii

Read Your Way Around the World is a series exploring the globe through books.

It shouldn’t have to be said that Hawaii is not your paradise, but I’m saying it anyway. Please understand: This is not an attempt to erect a hostile barrier, but an entreaty to take the responsibility seriously. To read Hawaii is to understand that much of Hawaii will never, should never, be accessible to the masses.

My reasoning draws from history, threading through delicate time markers: 1893, the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom; 1898, the islands’ annexation by the United States; 1976, Protect Kahoʻolawe Ohana’s occupation of the island of Kahoolawe while the U.S. Navy assaulted the land, using it as a bombing range; and 2019, the arrest of 38 kūpuna, our elders, who were blocking a road in protest of yet another new construction atop our sacred mountain Mauna Kea.

Of course, this timeline is incomplete, a crude rough draft. It does not begin to touch upon so many of the small moments lost to history: the warble of the kauaʻi ʻōʻō issuing its final song, a tūtū (grandparent) opening a window to welcome the trade winds.

The writers I admire most are putting pen to these moments, both intimate and cosmic in scope. They are writing into a Hawaii that refuses to bow down to the inherently violent campaigns of American imperialism, militarism and tourism that intersect at our archipelago. They capture the spirit of mythology and oral storytelling that suffuses the warm air and mingles with the brine of the Pacific. Spend time with their words, and get comfortable with the nuance. You’ll see that Hawaii is not your paradise, but so much more.

What should I read to learn about Hawaii’s history?

When it comes to our islands’ past, one of the most influential works of the last century is “From a Native Daughter,”by the late Haunani-Kay Trask. Trask was Hawaii’s essential native daughter: A lifelong activist, educator and author, she was a founding leader of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement as well as a widely admired poet. “From a Native Daughter”is her seminal work of scholarship, in which she evinces the vitality — the mana — of the Native Hawaiian community in language at once empowered and infuriated. Read Trask because her words will change you, and because it’s vital to put in the work to understand our story before you can conceive of our home as a vacation destination.

What books explore Hawaii’s cultural complexity?

“This Is Paradise,”by Kristiana Kahakauwila, is the book that gave me permission to write my own. In six outstanding stories, Kahakauwila vividly portrays a Hawaii at once instantly familiar to locals and distinct from pop culture depictions, á la “The White Lotus,” that approach our home with a tourist’s gaze. Within the book’s pages, you’ll encounter the paniolo cowboy community alongside the cock fighters of Upcountry Maui. And in the unforgettable title story, a chorus of workers in Waikiki escorts you through the tourist trap’s unseen underbelly.