Hawaiian Historical Society hosts UHP author John R. K. Clark

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Author John R. K. Clark turns to the Hawaiian newspaper archives to create rich reference guides filled with primary resource accounts of places in Hawai’i — his latest title, North Shore Place Names, comes from a lifelong passion for surfing and fascination with Hawai’i’s home of legendary winter swells. This title is an important example of one of many transitions in research style for scholars of Hawai’i — please take a look at his Hawaiian Historical Society lecture by clicking on the image to the left.

His latest title, North Shore Place Names, can be found on our web store.

2015 Hawaii Book & Music Festival: UH Press Tent & Author Events

HBMF2015_event map_master_FINALUniversity of Hawai‘i Press will be among the publishers, booksellers, and nonprofits exhibiting at the 10th annual Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival this weekend, May 2–3, at the Frank F. Fasi Civic Grounds next to Honolulu Hale. Admission and parking are free. Go to the festival website to download a detailed schedule of events and PDF of the map shown above. Be sure to come by the UH Press tent, located near the Alana Pavilion (left side of the map, ‘ewa-mauka corner). We’ll have our latest Hawai‘i titles available for sale at a discount and will offer free U.S. shipping on any orders taken onsite.

Numerous UH Press authors will be participating in this yearly “celebration of story and song.” Some highlights to look for:

• UH Wahine volleyball coach Dave Shoji and journalist Ann Miller will talk about their collaboration in writing Wahine Volleyball: 40 Years Coaching Hawai‘i’s Team. (Saturday, 10 a.m.; signing at 11 a.m.)
John R. K. Clark, whose ninth UHP title, North Shore Place Names: Kahuku to Ka‘ena, received the 2015 Ka Palapala Po‘okela honorable mention in Hawaiian Language, Culture & History, will be on the “Hawaiian Sense of Place” panel. (Saturday, 11 a.m.; signing at 12 noon)
• UHM ethnic studies professor Jonathan Okamura will moderate the “From Race to Ethnicity” panel based on his book, From Race to Ethnicity: Interpreting Japanese American Experiences in Hawai‘i. (Saturday, 12 noon; signing at 1 p.m.)
• An entire session is devoted to the third volume in the Hawai‘inuiākea series, ‘Ike Ulana Lau Hala: The Vitality and Vibrancy of Lau Hala Weaving Traditions in Hawai‘i, with coeditor Lia O’Neill Keawe as moderator, and several contributors as panel speakers. (Saturday, 12 noon)
• Veteran journalist Denby Fawcett will be at the UHP booth to sign copies of her colorful and definitive book on O‘ahu’s iconic landmark, Secrets of Diamond Head: A History and Trail Guide. (Saturday, signing at 2 p.m.)
• Marine biologist and “Ocean Watch” columnist Susan Scott—called “a gifted speaker” during her recent Midwest tour—will present her newest title, Call Me Captain: A Memoir of a Woman at Sea. (Sunday, 11 a.m.; signing at 12 noon)
• Independent historian/researcher Dawn Duensing will give a unique perspective, accompanied by slides, on the theme of her just-published book, Hawai‘i’s Scenic Roads: Paving the Way for Tourism in the Islands. Previously a Maui resident, she is currently relocating from Australia to England. (Sunday, 2 p.m.; signing at 3 p.m.)
Sydney Iaukea, author of Keka‘a: The Making and Saving of North Beach West Maui, distributed by UHP for the North Beach–West Maui Benefit Fund, will moderate a panel on the book’s topic. (Sunday, 2 p.m.)
• MĀNOA journal editor Frank Stewart will host readings from the latest issue, Islands of Imagination, Volume One: Modern Indonesian Plays. (Sunday, 3 p.m.)

Authors will stop by the UHP booth throughout both days after their presentations for impromptu signings, so visit us often. Also check out our friends at Native Books/Nā Mea Hawai‘i and the Hawai‘i State Public Library System booths.

Happy 10th anniversary, HBMF—here’s hoping today’s gorgeous weather continues through the weekend!

2015 Ka Palapala Po‘okela Awards: UH Press Nominees

KaPalapala2015-inviteThe 22nd annual Ka Palapala Po‘okela Awards celebration is scheduled for Thursday, April 23, 6 to 9 p.m., at Imin Conference Center (Jefferson Hall) at the East-West Center, which adjoins University of Hawai‘i’s Mānoa campus. Hawaii News Now reporter/commentator Howard Dicus will again be the ceremony emcee. The awards are presented annually by Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association to honor Hawai‘i’s finest books and their authors, illustrators, designers, and publishers.

Titles with a 2014 copyright date were eligible for this year’s awards. UH Press has a wonderful group of nominees (listed alphabetically by author’s name):

North Shore Place Names: Ka‘ena to Kahuku, by John R. K. Clark
(Excellence in Hawaiian Language, Culture & History)

Ocean to Plate: Cooking Fish with Hawai‘i’s Kusuma Cooray, by Kusuma Cooray; designed by Mardee Melton
(Excellence in Cookbooks; Excellence in Design)

Hawaiian Plant Life: Vegetation and Flora, by Robert J. Gustafson, Derral R. Herbst, and Philip W. Rundel; designed by Mardee Melton
(Excellence in Illustrative or Photographic Books; Excellence in Natural Science; Excellence in Design)

‘Ike Ulana Lau Hala: The Vitality and Vibrancy of Lau Hala Weaving Traditions in Hawai‘i, edited by Lia O’Neill Keawe, Marsha MacDowell, and C. Kurt Dewhurst
(Excellence in Hawaiian Language, Culture & History)

Kua‘āina Kahiko: Life and Land in Ancient Kahikinui, Maui, by Patrick Vinton Kirch
(Excellence in Hawaiian Language, Culture & History; Excellence in Nonfiction)

Sovereign Sugar: Industry and Environment in Hawai‘i, by Carol A. MacLennan
(Excellence in Nonfiction)

From Race to Ethnicity: Interpreting Japanese American Experiences in Hawai‘i, by Jonathan Y. Okamura
(Excellence in Nonfiction)

I Ulu I Ka ‘Aina: Land, edited by Jonathan Osorio
(Excellence in Hawaiian Language, Culture & History)

The Watersmart Garden: 100 Great Plants for the Tropical Xeriscape, by Fred D. Rauch and Paul R. Weissich
(Excellence in Natural Science)

Local Story: The Massie-Kahahawai Case and the Culture of History, by John P. Rosa
(Excellence in Nonfiction)

Call Me Captain: A Memoir of a Woman at Sea, by Susan Scott
(Excellence in Nonfiction)

Wahine Volleyball: 40 Years Coaching Hawai‘i’s Team, by Dave Shoji with Ann Miller; designed by Julie Matsuo-Chun
(Excellence in Special-Interest Books; Excellence in Design)

Surfing Places, Surfboard Makers: Craft, Creativity, and Cultural Heritage in Hawai‘i, California, and Australia; by Andrew Warren and Chris Gibson
(Excellence in Special-Interest Books)

The Value of Hawai‘i 2: Ancestral Roots, Oceanic Visions; edited by Aiko Yamashiro and Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua
(Excellence in Nonfiction)

In addition to the above UHP titles, ones distributed by UH Press were nominated by their respective publishers:

‘Io Lani: The Hawaiian Hawk; photographs by William S. Chillingworth with essays by John L. Culliney

Breaking the Silence: Lessons of Democracy and Social Justice from the World War II Honouliuli Internment and POW Camp in Hawai‘i, edited by Suzanne Falgout and Linda Nishigaya

Secrets of Diamond Head : A History and Trail Guide, by Denby Fawcett

Lihu‘e: Root and Branch of a Hawai‘i Town, by Pat L. Griffin

Keka‘a: The Making and Saving of North Beach West Maui, by Sydney Lehua Iaukea

Reflections of Honor: The Untold Story of a Nisei Spy, by Lorraine Ward and Katherine Erwin with Yoshinobu Oshiro

For a complete list of this year’s nominees, read the Hawaii Book Blog post.

Kudos and good wishes to all!

Spring Talks by Hawai‘i Authors

Wahine VolleyballThursday, March 19, 12 noon to 1:15 p.m.
UH women’s volleyball coach Dave Shoji and coauthor Ann Miller share the backstory of their collaboration on Wahine Volleyball: 40 Years Coaching Hawai‘i’s Team, at Kuykendall 410, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Their talk is part of the Brown Bag Biography series sponsored by the Center for Biographical Research. UH Mānoa Bookstore will have books available for purchase and signing at the talk. For more information, click here for the event flyer. [Apologies for the late timing of this announcement.]
If you missed it earlier, read the terrific HONOLULU Magazine feature that ran in the November 2014 issue.
North Shore Place Names
Thursday, March 19, 7:30 p.m.
Author John R. K. Clark presents an illustrated lecture on the fascinating stories and historical nuggets from his newest book, North Shore Place Names: Kahuku to Ka‘ena. The free event is sponsored by the Hawaiian Historical Society but will take place at Kapi’olani Community College cafeteria (Hale ‘Ōhi’a). For details, including parking instructions, see the HHS description.
The March issue of Ka Wai Ola published an insightful story on how Clark researched his book using OHA’s Papakilo database of Hawaiian-language newspapers from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries.
Call Me CaptainSaturday, March 21, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.
“Ocean Watch” columnist Susan Scott will be at the Ko‘olau Writers Workshop to conduct one of the sessions on creative nonfiction. She recently returned from a successful West Coast speaking tour for her newest book, Call Me Captain: A Memoir of a Woman at Sea.
If it’s too late to register for the workshop, check out the Sunday feature (this version ran later in the Mercury News) that resulted from her tour—it appeared not only in California but re-ran in dailies in Pennsylvania.

Kuaaina Kahiko: Life and Land in Ancient Kahikinui, Maui

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In early Hawai‘i, kua‘āina were the hinterlands inhabited by nā kua‘āina, or country folk. Often these were dry, less desirable areas where much skill and hard work were required to wrest a living from the lava landscapes. The ancient district of Kahikinui in southeast Maui is such a kua‘āina and remains one of the largest tracts of undeveloped land in the islands. Named after Tahiti Nui in the Polynesian homeland, its thousands of pristine acres house a treasure trove of archaeological ruins—witnesses to the generations of Hawaiians who made this land their home before it was abandoned in the late nineteenth century.

Kua‘āina Kahiko follows kama‘āina archaeologist Patrick Vinton Kirch on a seventeen-year-long research odyssey to rediscover the ancient patterns of life and land in Kahikinui. Through painstaking archaeological survey and detailed excavations, Kirch and his students uncovered thousands of previously undocumented ruins of houses, trails, agricultural fields, shrines, and temples. Kirch describes how, beginning in the early fifteenth century, Native Hawaiians began to permanently inhabit the rocky lands along the vast southern slope of Haleakalā. Eventually these planters transformed Kahikinui into what has been called the greatest continuous zone of dryland planting in the Hawaiian Islands. He relates other fascinating aspects of life in ancient Kahikinui, such as the capture and use of winter rains to create small wet-farming zones, and decodes the complex system of heiau, showing how the orientations of different temple sites provide clues to the gods to whom they were dedicated. 

Kirch examines the sweeping changes that transformed Kahikinui after European contact, including how some maka’āinana families fell victim to unscrupulous land agents. But also woven throughout the book is the saga of Ka ‘Ohana o Kahikinui, a grass-roots group of Native Hawaiians who successfully struggled to regain access to these Hawaiian lands. Rich with ancedotes of Kirch’s personal experiences over years of field research, Kua’āina Kahiko takes the reader into the little-known world of the ancient kua‘āina.

Written by Patrick Vinton Kirch

2014 | 336 pages | 80 illustrations, 5 maps
ISBN: 978-0-8248-3955-0 | $49.00 | Cloth

2014 Hawaii Book & Music Festival: UH Press Tent & Author Events

University of Hawai‘i Press will once again be among the local publishers and vendors exhibiting at the Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival taking place this weekend, May 3–4 on the Frank F. Fasi Civic Grounds next to Honolulu Hale. Admission and parking are free. Go to the festival website to download a detailed schedule of events and PDF of the map shown here, as well as the HBMF app.

HBMF 2014 event mapPresentations with UH Press authors and events to look for:

• A series of panels with the editors and contributors to The Value of Hawai‘i 2: Ancestral Roots, Oceanic Visions (Saturday, 10am to 2pm)
• UC-Berkeley professor Patrick Kirch on his newest title, Kua‘āina Kahiko: Life and Land in Ancient Kahikinui, Maui (Saturday, 2pm). Dr. Kirch will also speak on his archaeological work at Kahikinui at Bishop Museum’s “Traditions of the Pacific” lecture series on Friday, May 2, 6:00–7:30pm.
• Anthropologist Carol MacLennan shares her book, Sovereign Sugar: Industry and Environment in Hawai‘i (Saturday, 2pm)
• Australians Andrew Warren and Chris Gibson launch their book, Surfing Places, Surfboard Makers, with a panel of board shapers (Saturday, 3pm). On Tuesday, May 6, noon to 1pm, they’ll be at UHM Saunders Hall 443 to present as part of the Spring Geography Lecture series.
Maenette Ah Nee-Benham, Puakea Nogelmeier, and Jon Osorio from Hawai‘inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge talk about the Hawai‘inuiākea series of books (Saturday, 3pm)
• Selected readings from MĀNOA: A Pacific Journal of International Writing, as it celebrates its 25th anniversary (Sunday, 1 pm)
• UHM English professor Gary Pak discusses and reads from his latest novel, Brothers under a Same Sky (Sunday 3pm)
• UHM history professor John Rosa examines the social issues in his book, Local Story: The Massie-Kahahawai Case and the Culture of History (Sunday, 4pm)
• Award-winning writer Tom Coffman (I Respectfully Dissent; The Island Edge of America) speaks on the panel, “How Hawai‘i Changed America” (Sunday, 3pm).

Featured distributed titles:

• North Kohala resident William S. Chillingworth presents his book of awe-inspiring photographs, ‘Io Lani: The Hawaiian Hawk, accompanied by chant by Nathan Napoka, whose essays appear in the book (Saturday, 12 noon). A book launch celebration takes place Thursday, May 1, 6:00–8:30pm at Native Books/Nā Mea Hawai‘i—everyone welcome.
• Veteran journalist Denby Fawcett unveils the story of an iconic landmark in Secrets of Diamond Head: A History and Trail Guide (Sunday, 12 noon). This is the first time copies of this hot-off-the-press book will be available for sale.
• Three Hawaiian culture kūpuna, Corinne Chun, Manu Boyd, and Thomas Boyd, will share appreciation of the newly annotated edition of Queen Lili‘uokalani‘s classic memoir, Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen (Sunday, 1pm).
• A distinguished panel will discuss the themes in volume three of Japanese Eyes, American Heart (Sunday 4pm).

Authors will stop by after their presentations throughout the day, so follow them to the UH Press tent, located in the row of publishers along Honolulu Hale (left side of the map). We’ll have event-only discounts and will offer free shipping on orders placed at the booth for titles not available onsite.

See you there!

2014 Hawaii Book & Music Festival: UH Press Tent & Author Events

University of Hawai‘i Press will once again be among the local publishers and vendors exhibiting at the Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival taking place this weekend, May 3–4 on the Frank F. Fasi Civic Grounds next to Honolulu Hale. Admission and parking are free. Go to the festival website to download a detailed schedule of events and PDF of the map shown here, as well as the HBMF app.

HBMF 2014 event mapPresentations with UH Press authors and events to look for:

• A series of panels with the editors and contributors to The Value of Hawai‘i 2: Ancestral Roots, Oceanic Visions (Saturday, 10am to 2pm)
• UC-Berkeley professor Patrick Kirch on his newest title, Kua‘āina Kahiko: Life and Land in Ancient Kahikinui, Maui (Saturday, 2pm). Dr. Kirch will also speak on his archaeological work at Kahikinui at Bishop Museum’s “Traditions of the Pacific” lecture series on Friday, May 2, 6:00–7:30pm.
• Anthropologist Carol MacLennan shares her book, Sovereign Sugar: Industry and Environment in Hawai‘i (Saturday, 2pm)
• Australians Andrew Warren and Chris Gibson launch their book, Surfing Places, Surfboard Makers, with a panel of board shapers (Saturday, 3pm). On Tuesday, May 6, noon to 1pm, they’ll be at UHM Saunders Hall 443 to present as part of the Spring Geography Lecture series.
Maenette Ah Nee-Benham, Puakea Nogelmeier, and Jon Osorio from Hawai‘inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge talk about the Hawai‘inuiākea series of books (Saturday, 3pm)
• Selected readings from MĀNOA: A Pacific Journal of International Writing, as it celebrates its 25th anniversary (Sunday, 1 pm)
• UHM English professor Gary Pak discusses and reads from his latest novel, Brothers under a Same Sky (Sunday 3pm)
• UHM history professor John Rosa examines the social issues in his book, Local Story: The Massie-Kahahawai Case and the Culture of History (Sunday, 4pm)
• Award-winning writer Tom Coffman (I Respectfully Dissent; The Island Edge of America) speaks on the panel, “How Hawai‘i Changed America” (Sunday, 3pm).

Featured distributed titles:

• North Kohala resident William S. Chillingworth presents his book of awe-inspiring photographs, ‘Io Lani: The Hawaiian Hawk, accompanied by chant by Nathan Napoka, whose essays appear in the book (Saturday, 12 noon). A book launch celebration takes place Thursday, May 1, 6:00–8:30pm at Native Books/Nā Mea Hawai‘i—everyone welcome.
• Veteran journalist Denby Fawcett unveils the story of an iconic landmark in Secrets of Diamond Head: A History and Trail Guide (Sunday, 12 noon). This is the first time copies of this hot-off-the-press book will be available for sale.
• Three Hawaiian culture kūpuna, Corinne Chun, Manu Boyd, and Thomas Boyd, will share appreciation of the newly annotated edition of Queen Lili‘uokalani‘s classic memoir, Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen (Sunday, 1pm).
• A distinguished panel will discuss the themes in volume three of Japanese Eyes, American Heart (Sunday 4pm).

Authors will stop by after their presentations throughout the day, so follow them to the UH Press tent, located in the row of publishers along Honolulu Hale (left side of the map). We’ll have event-only discounts and will offer free shipping on orders placed at the booth for titles not available onsite.

See you there!

Sovereign Sugar: Industry and Environment in Hawaii

MacLennanAlthough little remains of Hawai`i’s plantation economy, the sugar industry’s past dominance has created the Hawai`i we see today. Many of the most pressing and controversial issues—urban and resort development, water rights, expansion of suburbs into agriculturally rich lands, pollution from herbicides, invasive species in native forests, an unsustainable economy—can be tied to Hawai`i’s industrial sugar history.

In Sovereign Sugar, Carol MacLennan unravels the tangled relationship between the sugar industry and Hawai`i’s cultural and natural landscapes. It is the first work to fully examine the complex tapestry of socioeconomic, political, and environmental forces that shaped sugar’s role in Hawai`i. While early Polynesian and European influences on island ecosystems started the process of biological change, plantation agriculture, with its voracious need for land and water, profoundly altered Hawai`i’s landscape.

2014 | 400 pages | 21 illustrations | 4 maps
ISBN: 978-0-8248-3949-9 | $39.00s | Cloth

Local Story: The Massie-Kahahawai Case and the Culture of History

Rosa-REVThe Massie-Kahahawai case of 1931–1932 shook the Territory of Hawai‘i to its very core. Thalia Massie, a young Navy wife, alleged that she had been kidnapped and raped by “some Hawaiian boys” in Waikīkī. A few days later, five young men stood accused of her rape. Mishandling of evidence and contradictory testimony led to a mistrial, but before a second trial could be convened, one of the accused, Horace Ida, was kidnapped and beaten by a group of Navy men and a second, Joseph Kahahawai, lay dead from a gunshot wound. Thalia’s husband, Thomas Massie; her mother, Grace Fortescue; and two Navy men were convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter, despite witnesses who saw them kidnap Kahahawai and the later discovery of his body in Massie’s car. Under pressure from Congress and the Navy, territorial governor Lawrence McCully Judd commuted their sentences. After spending only an hour in the governor’s office at ‘Iolani Palace, the four were set free.

Local Story is a close examination of how Native Hawaiians, Asian immigrants, and others responded to challenges posed by the military and federal government during the case’s investigation and aftermath. In addition to providing a concise account of events as they unfolded, the book shows how this historical narrative has been told and retold in later decades to affirm a local identity among descendants of working-class Native Hawaiians, Asians, and others—in fact, this understanding of the term “local” in the islands dates from the Massie-Kahahawai case. It looks at the racial and sexual tensions in pre–World War II Hawai‘i that kept local men and white women apart and at the uneasy relationship between federal and military officials and territorial administrators. Lastly, it examines the revival of interest in the case in the last few decades: true crime accounts, a fictionalized TV mini-series, and, most recently, a play and a documentary—all spurring the formation of new collective memories about the Massie-Kahahawai case. 

Written by John P. Rosa

2014 | 176 pages
Cloth 978-0-8248-2825-7, $45.00
Paper 978-0-8248-3970-3, $19.99

2014 Ka Palapala Po‘okela Awards: UH Press Nominees

KPP2014-award-inviteNow marking its 21st year, the Ka Palapala Po‘okela Awards are presented annually by Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association to honor Hawai‘i’s finest books and their authors, illustrators, designers, and publishers. This year’s awards presentation is scheduled for Thursday, April 24, 6 to 9 pm, at the East-West Center auditorium, with local news reporter/commentator Howard Dicus as the ceremony emcee. Watch the HawaiiNewsNow Sunrise show on the morning of April 23 for a story on the awards.

Titles with a 2013 copyright date were eligible this year. The UH Press nominees are:

The Hikers Guide to O‘ahu: Updated and Expanded, by Stuart M. Ball, Jr.
(Excellence in Special-Interest Books)

Restoring Paradise: Rethinking and Rebuilding Nature in Hawai‘i, by Robert J. Cabin
(Excellence in Natural Science)

Ma‘i Lepera: Disease and Displacement in Nineteenth-Century Hawai‘i, by Kerri A. Inglis
(Excellence in Hawaiian Language, Culture, and History; Excellence in Nonfiction)

Brothers under a Same Sky, by Gary Pak
(Excellence in Literature)

Japanese Buddhist Temples in Hawai‘i: An Illustrated Guide, by George J. Tanabe and Willa Jane Tanabe
(Excellence in Special-Interest Books; Excellence in Design) UPDATE: Winner of the Award of Excellence in Special-Interest Books

Best wishes to each of our nominees!

The Value of Hawai‘i 2 Launches New Volume with Community Events

The Value of Hawai'i 2Continuing the conversations started in the first volume of this series, The Value of Hawai‘i 2: Ancestral Roots, Oceanic Visions offers passionate and poignant visions for the future of Hawai‘i. The fresh voices gathered in this collection of essays, poetry, and art share their inspiring work and ideas for protecting and creating wai wai, value, for coming generations. The volume editors, Aiko Yamashiro and Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua, together with over forty contributors, address a wide range of topics: community health, agriculture, public education, local business, energy, gender, rural lifestyles, sacred community, activism, storytelling, migration, voyaging, visual art, music, and the ‘āina. By exploring connections to those who have come before and those who will follow after, the contributors to this volume re-center Hawai‘i in our watery Pacific world.

Please come out to support these visions at planned community events cosponsored by UHM Center for Biographical Research and the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities. The first events start tonight with a collaboration with an exciting contemporary art exhibition, CONTACT. All discussion events are free and will take place at the Front Lawn at Honolulu Museum of Art School at Linekona, 1111 Victoria Street. Click here for the CONTACT events program.

Friday, April 11, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Jamaica Osorio – Gender in the Arts

Tuesday, April 15, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Cade Watanabe – Labor and the Arts

Wednesday, April 16, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Mark Kāwika Patterson – Prisons and Sanctuaries

Thursday, April 17 –  CANCELLED –TVoH2-BookLaunch_4-23-2014
Sania Fa’amaile Betty P. Ickes – Oceanic Connections

Monday, April 21, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Joseph Keawe’aimoku Kaholokula – Health and Inequality

Other events scheduled so far:

Wednesday, April 23, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Join us at the Book Launch celebration at UHM Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies.

Saturday, May 3, 9:30 am – 2:00 pm
Hawai‘i Book & Music Festival
A series of panels will be held at the Authors Pavilion Mauka. Click here for the festival event schedule.

Keep up with more information about the book and upcoming events on The Value of Hawai‘i website and Facebook page; follow @valuehawaii for Twitter updates.

Surfing Places, Surfboard Makers: Craft, Creativity, and Cultural Heritage in Hawaii, California, and Australia

Warren&GibsonOver the last forty years, surfing has emerged from its Pacific islands origins to become a global industry. Since its beginnings more than a thousand years ago, surfing’s icon has been the surfboard—its essential instrument, the point of physical connection between human and nature, body and wave. To a surfer, a board is more than a piece of equipment; it is a symbol, a physical emblem of cultural, social, and emotional meanings. Based on research in three important surfing locations—Hawai‘i, southern California, and southeastern Australia—this is the first book to trace the surfboard from regional craft tradition to its key role in the billion-dollar surfing business. 

The surfboard workshops of Hawai‘i, California, and Australia are much more than sites of surfboard manufacturing. They are hives of creativity where legacies of rich cultural heritage and the local environment combine to produce unique, bold board designs customized to suit prevailing waves. The globalization and corporatization of surfing have presented small, independent board makers with many challenges stemming from the wide availability of cheap, mass-produced boards and the influx of new surfers. The authors follow the story of board makers who have survived these challenges and stayed true to their calling by keeping the mythology and creativity of board making alive. In addition, they explore the heritage of the craft, the secrets of custom board production, the role of local geography in shaping board styles, and the survival of hand-crafting skills.

From the olo boards of ancient Hawaiian kahuna to the high-tech designs that represent the current state of the industry, Surfing Places, Surfboard Makers offers an entrée into the world of surfboard making that will find an eager audience among researchers and students of Pacific culture, history, geography, and economics, as well as surfing enthusiasts.

Written by Andrew Warren and Chris Gibson
2014 | 288 pages | 35 illustrations
Cloth ISBN 978-0-8248-3828-7, $55.00
Paper ISBN 978-0-8248-3943-7, $28.00