Latest news with #Polynesia
Washington Post
13 hours ago
- General
- Washington Post
How Hawaii pushed out native Hawaiians
Sara Kehaulani Goo was 8 years old when she learned a secret. Deep in a swath of her family's ancestral land on the isolated eastern tip of Maui stood a 13th-century temple known as a heiau, perhaps the largest anywhere in Polynesia. Even as a girl, she understood the spiritual weight of this Hawaiian place of worship. At first sight, she was astonished by the 'tidal wave of black' before her eyes. Some of the heiau's walls were 50 feet high. Terraces facing north and southeast rose to a central platform measuring 3¼ acres. The people who built it, starting some seven centuries earlier, had carried each chunk of basalt to its final resting place, rock by rock, hand to hand, in a human chain. They used no mortar or bonding or cement. Visiting it, both as a child and then again as an adult, she felt herself in the presence of something sacred — 'mana' in the Hawaiian language. 'Kuleana: A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawai'i,' Goo's new book, is nominally about the 90-acre family property on which the heiau stands — and the fight to save it from the forces that have expelled Hawaiians from their land since first contact with Europeans. Yet it is the heiau, and her first experience of it, that is the central force of the story. It 'planted the seed for me to become a journalist,' Goo (who was previously a reporter and editor at The Washington Post) writes. 'This is where my curiosity was born.' It also started her on a quest to understand her family's history and to write this very book. The heiau, and its mana, would shape her entire life. The story begins with the Great Mahele, a land redistribution edict carried out by King Kamehameha III in 1848. Its intent was to give chiefs and commoners access to resources during the upheaval wrought upon Hawaii by disease, capitalism and the rise of American influence in the islands. Goo's ancestor, a man named Kahanu with links to area chiefs, was the recipient of 990 acres of land on the eastern end of Maui. Upon his death, Kahanu, who had no heirs, left the land in equal parts to his two brothers and an aunt, Goo's direct forebear. Within 20 years of the Mahele, Kahanu's successors had sold much of the property to sugar planters. The remaining acreage was divided into ever smaller fractions, generation by generation. Today, Goo's extended family possesses 'more than ninety acres' of the original allotment. Goo's close relatives own 10 of those acres. 'Kuleana' is structured around a threat to that land. In 2019, Maui County increased the family's property taxes by almost 600 percent. Though the Goos explored several options — including planting a small farm on the land so that it could be rezoned for agriculture — no solution seemed plausible or permanent. The pressure to sell grew heavy. Yet this storyline makes up but a thin slice of 'Kuleana,' and the book is better for it. Goo's explorations of the problems Hawaii faces raise the stakes. The state already has the highest housing costs in the nation, and on Maui, nonresidents own a significant portion of homes. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg snapped up 1,400 acres on Kauai, then sued Hawaiians who held claims to some of these lands (he later dropped the suits). Before that, Oracle founder Larry Ellison purchased 98 percent of the 90,500-acre island of Lanai. For native Hawaiians, land displacement is present and ongoing: More than half of all native Hawaiians have left the islands. This might be the essential message in 'Kuleana.' Goo's motherly distress about raising her children in Washington, so far from their familial home, also feels vital. Even among her Hawaiian relatives, she writes, the fact that she grew up on the mainland has marked her for life. 'We were mainlanders who had plane tickets, not Native Hawaiians with residency.' Her prose is light and pithy, styled and structured like that of a newspaper reporter. This usually works in her favor. Yet her occasional reliance on cliché and tendency to use the same words repeatedly — often in a single paragraph, sometimes in a single sentence — slacken what could have been a tauter narrative. Small historical blemishes also appear in the book now and again. Goo writes, for instance, that Hawaiians killed Captain James Cook once they discovered he wasn't a god. This simplifies a more complex historical record. Misgivings aside, for too long most readers have looked to two or three titles to learn about the Hawaiian Islands. To this day, bookstores on the islands display gleaming stacks of James A. Michener's novel 'Hawaii,' 66 years after its publication and woefully out of date. To people with ties to Hawaii, Goo's story will already be familiar. But if just a fraction of the millions of annual visitors read 'Kuleana' and get a more subtle, more accurate understanding of these singular islands, it will be a cause for celebration. A serious book by a Hawaiian journalist, from a major publishing house, is a most welcome arrival. Makana Eyre is the author of 'Sing, Memory.' He was born and raised on the island of Oahu. A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawai'i By Sara Kehaulani Goo Flatiron. 351 pp. $29.99
RNZ News
6 days ago
- RNZ News
Bold Tahitian novelist Titaua Peu connects us back into the Pacific
Located in the centre of the Pacific, Tahiti's closest large land mass is Aotearoa New Zealand. It is where, from Raiatea, Māori migration canoes left in what is thought to be the late 13th Century or early 14th Century. Tahitian novelist Titaua Peu has for the last four months been French writer in residence at Randell Cottage in Pōneke Wellington. She is working on a new series of books. They present a near future marked by a reverse migration. One in which inhabitants of Aotearoa have migrated north to the island of Mangareva in French Polynesia following a great war. Considered one of the principal French speaking writers of the Pacific, Peu is known for work that considers Polynesian society today with attention to the effects of colonialism. Her last novel the celebrated Pina , was translated into English in 2022 after being awarded the 2017 Eugène Dabit Prize, and 2019 French Voices Grand Prize in Fiction. Peu's novels do not portray the paradise we have been taught, Pina is a raw yet tender portrayal of life for a large Tahitian family in Papeʻete, where intergenerational trauma manifests in violence, alcohol and other abuse. Peu's first novel, Mūtism , was published in 2003. She was then the youngest-ever published Tahitian author. A response to the effect of nuclear testing on Polynesia, it is said to have caused immediate scandal. Titaua Peu lives in Tahiti where she was recently a general manager in the municipality of Pāʻea, a commune in the suburbs of Papeʻete. She is in Aotearoa with the support of the Embassy of France and the Randell Cottage Writers Trust. Mark Amery of Culture 101 visited her at the old colonial cottage in Thorndon.
E&E News
13-06-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Interior advances first offshore mineral lease in decades
The Interior Department on Thursday took a step toward launching what could be the first mineral lease in U.S. waters in more than 30 years. The department announced it plans to publish a request for information and interest in the coming days to mine the deep seas off of American Samoa, a U.S. territory in the Polynesia region of the South Pacific. Upon publication in the Federal Register, the agency will take public comment for 30 days. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in a statement said the administration is putting 'America first' and moving to unlock vast stores of offshore minerals and ease the nation's reliance on countries like China. Advertisement President Donald Trump in April inked an executive order to boost deep-sea mining, part of a broader push to open the nation's land and waters to more mining and production of minerals.
RNZ News
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Samoan teacher pens children's book on cultural values
"Alagaupu Faasamoa ma uiga mo tamaiti" - is a new children's book in both Samoan and English by Samoan language expert and teacher Tauanu'u Perenise Tapu Sitagata, with illustrations by Maori artist Ani Huia Ligaliga. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
ABC News
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Tahitian musician and composer Teiva Viaris makes powerful solo debut with ocean-inspired track 'Hī Rau E'
The release of award-winning Tahitian composer and multi-instrumentalist Teiva Viaris' debut song Hī Rau E is just one chapter in his story as a musician. Born and raised in Tahiti, Viaris taught himself guitar at 10 years old, he said he "never envisioned to make living out of it, but it just stayed with me through everything," he told Nesia Daily. The talented artist shared how he juggles his time as a part-time music teacher, sound designer, and lead composer for the award-winning traditional dance group, Ia Ora Te Hura, which he co-founded with his wife. Originally commissioned by the Tahitian Ministry of Environment but never used, Hī Rau E became such a deeply personal project, leading Viaris to release it as his debut song. Sung entirely in the Tahitian language, the hypnotic track explores "the ocean, and the relationship Polynesian people have with the ocean," said the artist. "The phenomenon behind the birth of the islands, volcanic islands from the ocean. And then it draws a parallel between this phenomenon and the inner-functioning of the human body. So that's how the bond between humans and [the] ocean is established in the song." The accompanying animated music video, created by Mexican 2D artist Erick Cuevas a.k.a Nespy 5 Euro, is rich with references to Polynesian myths and legends — he says, carefully researched to ensure the "graphic vocabulary was respectful and authentic." Whether composing for dance, film, or now as a solo artist, Viaris remains grounded in cultural storytelling, sharing this advice for young musicians out there, "just be authentic, just be yourself. If you feel like you can express yourself in your music, then you're on the right path."
