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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, December 28, 2003

Year's best books embrace Hawaiiana

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

It has been a good year for Hawaiiana book publishing, which appeared to be in the peak of health in 2003.

Or perhaps it hasn't yet peaked. The revival of Bishop Museum Press, for example, can only mean further blossoming in native cultural chronicles, some of them in the Hawaiian language.

The year produced the first republication of the seminal "Arts and Crafts of Hawai'i" in more than 50 years, collecting all 13 of Peter Buck's ethnological tracts into one volume, as originally published ($34.95 hardbound, $29.95 paperback). Also released was "Sailing in the Wake of the Ancestors," the Polynesian voyaging story as told by Polynesian Voyaging Society pioneer Ben Finney ($24.95 hardcover). Both came out in the last quarter, both from Bishop, where new press director Blair Collis is shaking things up.

The interest in Hawaiian-language publishing extends to the resurrection of 19th century texts as well as new writing. Earlier this year the Hawaiian Historical Society released "Buke Mele Lahui, Book of National Songs" ($60 hardcover, $29.95 paper), a facsimile reprint of an 1895 collection of patriotic melodies.

Most recently, Manu Aluli Meyer, an education professor at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo, has taken on the study of Hawaiian thought and learning processes, the result being "Ho'oulu: Our Time of Becoming, Hawaiian Epistemology and Early Writings" (Ai Pohaku Press, $18.95, paperback).

Three other important works released late in the year are "Kohala 'Aina: A History of North Kohala" by Sophia V. Schweitzer with Michael S. Gomes (Mutual Publishing, oversize hardback, $60), a gorgeous and well-written tribute to this much-storied region; "Na Wahi Kapu O Maui" by Kapulani Landgraf ('Ai Pohaku, oversize hardback, $59.95), a haunting collection of black-and-white photographs and original poetry in Hawaiian and English, celebrating the beauty and history of the Valley Island; and "Then There Were None" by Martha H. Noyes (Bess Press, hardback, $10.95), the extended book version of Elizabeth Lindsey Buyers' film of the same name, about the emotional experience of Hawaiians since Western contact.

Here's a thumbnail sketch of a few standout books that have left a mark in 2003.

"Wao Akua: Sacred Source of LIfe," state Division of Forestry and Wildlife; $26 paperback

The state declared 2003 "Year of the Hawaiian Forest," and Jolie Wanger, public education specialist at the forestry division, saw an opportunity to bring to fruition an idea she'd hatched two years earlier: a book that gives the forest its due.

"They're basically our source of fresh water," said Wanger, who coordinated the project, with design by Barbara Pope and editing assistance by Frank Stewart. "They collect the water and they kind of package it for us, keep it from being lost to the system."

"Native forests tend to be considered more capable of that process, because they have a lot of undergrowth, layers that make for a really good protection against erosion."

Forests have even more than environmental significance in Hawaiian culture, she added, so the mission was to depict its full importance through a collection of color photographs and essays.

There's a piece by navigator Nainoa Thompson on the search for koa to build the canoe Hawai'iloa. Most of the photography is color, but there are black-and-white images by Kapulani Landgraf, paired with appropriate chants. Pualani Kanaka'ole Kanahele describes the forest environment in everyday life.

Wanger's written a piece herself, a reflection on one of the tours she led to the natural preserve atop Mount Ka'ala.

"They're culturally very important to Native Hawaiians, who continue to consider these more remote upland areas very sacred," she said. "They used to require a high level of training, just to approach some areas.

"My hope was that the book would appeal to the general public, probably more so to people interested in Hawaiian culture and natural history," Wanger added. "But it's not a technical kind of book. It's to inspire."

"Na Lei Makamae: The Treasured Lei" by Marie A. McDonald and Paul R. Weissich, Photos by Jean Cote; University of Hawai'i Press, $49.95 hardcover

Marie McDonald, one of the islands' noted experts on leimaking, and Paul R. Weissich, director emeritus of Honolulu Botanical Gardens, co-captained the team that produced this comprehensive work on a beloved art form in Hawai'i.

Part of the mission of this book is to convey that lei making and wearing go far beyond aesthetics. Lei symbolize the integration of nature with life in Hawaiian tradition.

In some cases, Weissich writes in the introduction, lei are made from the kino lau, or plant form, of deities and are used in ceremonies and religious expressions, such as hula.

There are 88 flowers and plants covered in the text, most of them documented in writing as being in use for lei; accounts handed down verbally suffice as evidence for the others.

What distinguishes this book from McDonald's 25-year-old classic "Ka Lei" is the degree to which the place of lei in culture is described, through the English narrative as well as through the poetry of chants, with translations from Hawaiian educator Pualani Kanaka'ole Kanahele.

Lush photos depict the lei wearers in natural settings. Don't look here for an explainer on stringing a plumeria or spray-painting the carnation lei for the tourist: Only plant materials are used in constructing these lei, and raw materials described are indigenous or early introduced plants.

The section on lei hala, constructed of the colored segments of the pandanus fruit. The text reflects the ambivalence about the use of lei hala, citing some references that note its popularity, others pointing out that at times it was viewed as bringing bad luck. In addition to the inclusion of the chant, the section describes hala color variations and the ceremonies in which it was used.

The purposes of lei, Weissich notes in the book, are varied: "A lei might be fashioned as a gift to honor the recipient, as a token of love, or simply as an ornament to express joy over a family occasion or something as everyday as a walk through the forest."

"Native Hawaiian Medicine, Volume III" by the Rev. David Kaluna M. Ka'aiakamanu, translated by Malcolm Naea Chun; First People's Productions, $15 paperback

This is the third and final in a series of translations of Hawaiian medicine that started when Chun was a public health educator for the state Department of Health. The books grew from discovery of a cardboard box filled with manuscripts written in Hawaiian, stowed behind the desk of Dr. Jack Lewin, then director of the department.

"They happened to notice it was in Hawaiian so they donated it to the archives," he said. "What we found later was it was all this research material from 1918-20."

The sugar industry had hit a low point at that time, Chun said, so the purpose of the research was to explore how native plants were used in medicine and then to assess the diversified agricultural potential of propagating these plants.

In addition to being a Christian minister, Ka'aiakamanu, author of these texts, was said to have been a kahuna as well, educated in these traditional uses, Chun added.

His particular expertise was in treating childhood and infant diseases, so many of the concoctions described here are for that purpose.

Chun had to transcribe composition books, handwritten in light pencil, and then translate the text. The book includes both Hawaiian and English text.

"It validates the other materials I've worked on, because it shows that multiple ingredients were used," he said. "Today if you go to some of these (native medicine) schools, they talk of one plant being good for this, one ingredient for that. That's not what these guys were saying. It's what I call the Longs Drug Store syndrome: You got a cold, you need Sudafed, that's it," Chun added. "But that's not how they did their traditional medicine."

Books editor Wanda A. Adams contributed to this report. Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.