Kuleana: A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawai'i
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Even so, to people in Hawai‘i, there’s a clear divide between locals and mainlanders, or visitors from the continental United States. And there’s another pecking order based on race, with ultimate street cred in how Native Hawaiian you are and, at the bottom, how haole (how-lee), or white—or technically, “foreigner”—you are.
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We learn in American history books about the displacement, violence, and broken promises to Native American tribes as if that sad story is in our past. But each day, each year, native people continue to be displaced from their land and their livelihood in Hawai‘i, whose only American narrative is as a paradise tourist destination. What’s overlooked, out of view, and too uncomfortable to see is the separation of Native Hawaiian land from Native Hawaiian people.
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Among Asian Americans, people who look Asian but who are out of touch with Asian culture are called a “banana”—yellow on the outside, white on the inside.
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Grandma had helped my parents pick out my middle name, Kehaulani, which means “snow of heaven.” My sister Haley’s name is Kanani, which means “the beautiful one.” My brother’s middle name, Malulani, means “under the protection of heaven.” And my youngest sister Emily’s middle name is the same as Grandma’s—Kekauililani, which means “riding the clouds of heaven.”