Hawaiian Renaissance Book-Signing This Weekend

Hawaii Stories of Change, Kokua Hawaii Oral History Project.
Gary Kubota book signing event.

A book-signing event takes place this weekend on Maui and Oʻahu for “Hawaiʻi Stories of Change” a Kōkua Hawaiʻi Oral History Project.

The book comes three years ahead of the 50th anniversary (in 2021) of the arrests of 32 people protesting the eviction of native Hawaiians and farmers in Kalama Valley.  The event has been described by some as the start of the “Hawaiian Renaissance.”

Author, Gary Kubota was one of those arrested.  He explains that some Native Hawaiian leaders asked him to assemble and put together the grant writing for the book about the multi-ethnic movement.

The Maui book signing takes place from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018 at the Maui Coffee Attic in Wailuku; and the Oʻahu event will be held on Sunday, Dec. 23, 2018 from 3 to 5 p.m. at Nā Mea Hawaiʻi at Ward Center.

“Awesome accomplishment,” said Davianna McGregor a professor at the University of Hawaiʻi.

“When several poor minority communities on Oʻahu faced eviction int he 1970s, a group of volunteer community organizers and their associates were willing to sand between them and the bulldozers.  This is the story of how Kōkua Hawaiʻi and community leaders helped to successfully resist the evictions by forming a multi-ethnic coalition and the beginnings of what some now call the “Hawaiian Renaissance.”

Kōkua Hawaiʻi leader Larry Kamakawiwoole plans to be at the Oʻahu book-signing.

The book features several pages of photographs, along with interviews with Larry Kamakawiwoole, George Cooper, former Gov. John Waihee, Edwina Moanikeala Akaka, Raymond Catania, Lori Treschuk, Clyde Maurice Kalani Ohelo, Rev. Wallace Fukunaga, John Witeck, Dancette Yockman, Liko Martin, Edyson Ching, Lucy Witeck, Gary T. Kubota, Alfred G. Abreu, Darrell Tagalog, Dwight Yoshimoto, Kehau Lee Jackson, Maivan Clech Lam, Reverend and former State Rep. Robert Nakata, Nora Gozon Tagalog, Sally Tagalog, Virgil Demain, Robert Fernandez, Raymond “Buddy” Ako, James Ng, Claire Shimabukuro, Francis Kaholi, Ed Greevy, Cindy Lance, Gwen Kim and Terrilee Kekoolani.  There’s also interviews with family members about Mary Whang Choy and Randy Kalahiki.

UH Press helped to arrange for the printing with another publisher at a significant discount, thanks to a request from historian Gavan Daws.  The project was also made possible through grant money from the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities, and was sponsored by the non-profit Hawaiʻi People’s Fund.