New Books in the Library 2019: Week of April 15

This book starts with the personal story of Queen Liliʻuokalani, tells of her husband and his family, and finishes with the story of a great house that has always been an important social and political hub. There is much new information about the Queen- such as bio's of her three hanai children, her own comments about her husband and their marriage, her late life almost-romance, her always precarious financial situation, her ability to mix Hawaiian and western cultural and religious beliefs, her kindness and caring along side her unpleasant comments about people.

In Paradoxes of Hawaiian Sovereignty J. Kēhaulani Kauanui examines contradictions of indigeneity and self-determination in U.S. domestic policy and international law. She theorizes paradoxes in the laws themselves and in nationalist assertions of Hawaiian Kingdom restoration and demands for U.S. deoccupation, which echo colonialist models of governance. Kauanui argues that Hawaiian elites' approaches to reforming and regulating land, gender, and sexuality in the early nineteenth century that paved the way for sovereign recognition of the kingdom complicate contemporary nationalist activism today, which too often includes disavowing the indigeneity of the Kanaka Maoli (Indigenous Hawaiian) people. Problematizing the ways the positing of the Hawaiian Kingdom's continued existence has been accompanied by a denial of U.S. settler colonialism, Kauanui considers possibilities for a decolonial approach to Hawaiian sovereignty that would address the privatization and capitalist development of land and the ongoing legacy of the imposition of heteropatriarchal modes of social relations.

Tatau is a beautifully designed and richly illustrated retelling of the unique and powerful history of Samoan tattooing, from 3,000 years ago to modern practices. The Samoan Islands are virtually unique in that tattooing has been continuously practiced with indigenous techniques: the full male tattoo, the pe'a has evolved in subtle ways in its design since the nineteenth century, but remains as elaborate, meaningful, and powerful as it ever was. This cultural history is the first publication to examine Samoan tatau from its earliest beginnings. Through a chronology rich with people, encounters, and events it describes how Samoan tattooing has been shaped by local and external forces of change over many centuries. It is richly illustrated with historical images of nineteenth and twentieth century Samoan tattooing, contemporary tattooing, diagrams of tattoo designs and motifs, and with supplementary photographs such as posters, ephemera, film stills and artefacts.

Documents the political lives of four wāhine koa (courageous women): Moanike'ala Akaka, Maxine Kahaulelio, Terrilee Keko'olani-Raymond, and Loretta Ritte, who are leaders in Hawaiian movements of aloha 'āina. They narrate the ways they came into activism and talk about what enabled them to sustain their involvement for more than four decades. All four of these warriors emerged as movement organizers in the 1970s, and each touched the Kaho'olawe struggle during this period. While their lives and political work took different paths in the ensuing decades--whether holding public office, organizing Hawaiian homesteaders, or building international demilitarization alliances--they all maintained strong commitments to Hawaiian and related broader causes for peace, justice, and environmental health into their golden years. They remain koa aloha 'āina--brave fighters driven by their love for their land and country.

Sam and Mary Cooke have assembled at Kualii, their Manoa Valley home, a cultural treasure unsurpassed by any other private collection in the islands. This collection of paintings, drawings, and prints of the Hawaiian Islands uniquely reflects the kamaaina appreciation the Cookes have for various locales throughout the islands, including generations-long associations with people and places, and a love of legends and history. In this book, historian and bibliographer David W. Forbes presents a selection of the collection's finest works.