THE CRY OF THE HUNA: THE ANCESTRAL VOICES OF HAWAI'I, BY MOKE KUPIHEA; INNER TRADITIONS, PAPER, $14.95

In this haunting successor to his 2001 volume "Kahuna of Light," Moke Kupihea continues his journey into his own understanding of his ancestry and the traditions of the Hawaiian people.

"The Cry of the Huna" is a complex and often difficult compiling of recounted history, personal travelogue and worldview, in which the author challenges assumptions about Hawaiian traditions and proposes solutions to Hawai'i's modern malaise. He travels from special places on Kaua'i to revered cultural sites on the Big Island, layering throughout images of the past and the present, and providing perspective with chapters of history.

Kupihea, a native of Waimea, Kaua'i, who traces his lineage from a line of Hawaiian priests, describes a capacity that seems reminiscent of the vision quests of Native Americans. He travels dreamily through time, assembling spiritual beings who guide him, viewing ancient scenes and gaining insight into his cultural heritage.

He calls on Hawaiians to look into their past and to grasp their traditions as they were seven generations back, to the time before Kamehameha, in order to provide their children with a better future.

"Return, I say unto you, survivors of the Hawaiian race of today. Swing back the generation of your father or mother by seven, and return to the feathered wreath of your ancestors in Kalaniopuu's day. Return to the feathered wreath of old," he writes.

He does not link the problems of modern Hawai'i, as many do, directly to the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. Rather, he traces it back to the establishment of the Kamehameha line as a European-style monarchy, which he says allowed Hawaiian lands to be transferred out of Hawaiian hands.

Kupihea believes the modern Hawaiian discomfort will not be eased until Hawaiians come to terms with their debts and their debtors, forgiving and being forgiven. Hawaiian ancestors, he writes, "are calling to entirely do away with all faults, big and little, to reunite under one ancestral spirit, to spin back what was spun away, in order to rediscover the legitimacy of their nation indivisibly from the inside."