Category: History

Cultures of Commemoration Now Available in Paperback

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Cultures of Commemoration
Cultures of Commemoration: The Politics of War, Memory, and History in the Mariana Islands, by Keith L Camacho, is now available in paperback.

“There is no other work that examines the complex interplay and layering of colonialisms in the twentieth-century Marianas with such detail, sensitivity, and intelligence.”—Takashi Fujitani, University of California at San Diego

“Camacho‘s study shows us that the critique of indigenous memory is not only crucial to the field of memory studies but also provides a key framework through which the politics of memory will be rethought.” —Marita Sturken, New York University, author of Tourists of History: Memory, Kitsch, and Consumerism from Oklahoma City to Ground Zero

Pacific Islands Monograph Series #25
Published in association with the Center for Pacific Islands Studies, University of Hawai‘i
December 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3670-2 / $25.00 (PAPER)

In Memoriam — Jon Van Dyke

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John Van DykeJon Van Dyke, professor, author, and a leading authority on Native Hawaiian law and constitutional law, passed away on November 29 while traveling in Australia. He joined the University of Hawai‘i Richardson School of Law in 1976 and was one of its longest-serving and most distinguished faculty members.

“Hawaii has lost a steadfast advocate for Native Hawaiian and civil rights, a leading expert on Hawaiian land and water rights law, and a tireless defender of public lands and natural resources.” —Hawai‘i State Senator Daniel Akaka

Photo: Star-Advertiser archives

UH Press Authors Advise The Descendants

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The DescendantsAccording to the Wall Street Journal blog Speakeasy, UH Press authors Gavan Daws (Shoal of Time: A History of the Hawaiian Islands) and Randall Roth (Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement, and Political Manipulation at America’s Largest Charitable Trust) served as “tour guides through Honolulu society” for filmmakers Alexander Payne and Jim Burke during preproduction of The Descendants.

In addition, Daws read the script and shared his thoughts on the soundtrack, which features Hawai‘i artists exclusively. Roth provided guidance on trust law, in particular the rule against perpetuities—a key point in the plot surrounding George Clooney’s character, who must decide whether or not to sell a piece of prime Kaua‘i real estate that has been in his family for generations.

Photo: Fox Searchlight

Art, Activism, and Authenticity in Hawai‘i

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The Painted KingFor more information on The Painted King author events in Hawai‘i this month, go to: http://uhpress.wordpress.com/2011/11/02/the-painted-king-book-launches./

The famous statue of Kamehameha I in downtown Honolulu is one of the state’s most popular landmarks. Many tourists—and residents—however, are unaware that the statue is a replica; the original, cast in Paris in the 1880s and the first statue in the Islands, stands before the old courthouse in rural Kapa‘au, North Kohala, the legendary birthplace of Kamehameha I. In 1996 conservator Glenn Wharton was sent by public arts administrators to assess the statue’s condition, and what he found startled him: A larger-than-life brass figure painted over in brown, black, and yellow with “white toenails and fingernails and penetrating black eyes with small white brush strokes for highlights. . . . It looked more like a piece of folk art than a nineteenth-century heroic monument.”

The Painted King: Art, Activism, and Authenticity in Hawai‘i is Wharton’s account of his efforts to conserve the Kohala Kamehameha statue, but it is also the story of his journey to understand the statue’s meaning for the residents of Kapa‘au.

“The Painted King will be essential reading for creators, curators, and devotees of public art.” —David Lowenthal, University College London; author of The Past Is a Foreign Country

“A path-breaking volume in conservation studies, The Painted King is certain to prompt readers to think further about the relationship between community and conservation in Hawaiian art, identity, and history.” —Stacy L. Kamehiro, author of The Arts of Kingship: Hawaiian Art and National Culture of the Kalākaua Era

November 2011
ISBN 978-0-8248-3495-1 $42.00 (CLOTH)
ISBN 978-0-8248-3612-2 / $19.00 (PAPER)

A Cultural History of Kanaky-New Calendonia

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Nights of StorytellingNights of Storytelling: A Cultural History of New Caledonia, edited by Raylene Ramsay, is the first book to present and contextualize the founding texts of New Caledonia, a country sui generis in the relatively little-known French Pacific. Extracts from literary, ethnographic, and historical works in English translation introduce the many voices of a diverse culture as it moves toward “independence” or the “common destiny” framed by the 1998 Noumea Agreements. These texts reflect the coexistence of two major cultures, indigenous and European, shaped by the energies and shadows of empire and significantly influenced by one another.

Nights of Storytelling is a collaborative work complemented by La nuit des contes, a subtitled DVD of images and text, which features key works read or spoken, generally in the original French. It provides visual and aural access for the book’s Anglophone readers to the specific cultural, linguistic, and geographic contexts of these historical and literary works.

November 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3222-3 / $49.00 (CLOTH + DVD)

Isaiah Walker at ESPN ActionSports, the HIC Pro

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Isaiah Walker; photo by Daniel ItoLast week Isaiah Helekunihi Walker was featured at ESPN ActionSports, where he spoke about the inspiration behind his book Waves of Resistance: Surfing and History in Twentieth-Century Hawai‘i:

“I was born and raised in Hilo, and growing up in Hilo I always had an image of these surfers called ‘The Hui,’ so when I was on the North Shore, going to school, somebody told me ‘there is a guy [the late Imbert Soren] who works here, and he started the club and you gotta go meet him. . . . [Soren] was so cool to me—a lot of aloha and hugs. . . . [Meeting him] was a really different vibe of what I thought and what I imagined as a child. It started me off on this journey of interviewing more surfers, and from those interviews and stories, it led to a deeper analysis of how much deeper we had to look to understand some of these voices.”

Read the full post: http://espn.go.com/action/surfing/blog/_/post/7224826/shedding-light-hawaiian-culture

Walker was also interviewed at the 2011 HIC Pro, held earlier this month at Sunset Beach. Watch the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwYThrsIbVE

Photo by Daniel Ikaika Ito

The Painted King Book Launches

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The Painted KingNew York art conservator Glenn Wharton will visit Hawai‘i to launch The Painted King: Art Activism, and Authenticity in Hawai‘i, which recounts his experiences conserving the original King Kamehameha statue in Kohala.

Sunday, November 20, 2 pm:
The North Kohala Community Resource Center will sponsor a panel with the author at the Senior Center in Kapa‘au on the island of Hawai‘i.

Tuesday, November 22, 3-4:30 pm: 
Queen Lili‘uokalani Center, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Room 412
Dr. Wharton will give a brief presentation on his book, followed by comments from UH faculty Karen Kosasa and Ty Tengan. Professor Geoffrey White will moderate the discussion.

Tuesday, November 22, 6:30-8:30 pm:
Native Books/Nā Mea Hawai‘i
Hawai‘i Arts Alliance will join UH Press in celebrating The Painted King with a short talk by the author, followed by a booksigning and refreshments. The Arts Alliance supported Wharton’s work on the monument.

Spirits of the Place Now Available in Paperback

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spirits of the Place
Spirits of the Place: Buddhism and Lao Religious Culture, by John Clifford Holt, is now available in paperback.

“This work fills a very real need in Buddhist studies (introduction of Lao Buddhism in general), religious studies (investigation and theorization of the disciplinary problem of ‘syncretism’), and regional studies of Southeast Asia. . . . [The book] represents a genuine and thus far unique contribution to all of these fields, engages with issues of enough centrality and importance to be of great interest to experts, and is written and organized in a manner accessible enough to be used for many classes.” —Journal of Religion

October 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3657-3 / $27.00 (PAPER)

Gerald Horne Events in San Francisco & Oakland

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Fighting in ParadiseGerald Horne, the author of the recent Fighting in Paradise: Labor Unions, Racism, and Communists in the Making of Modern Hawai‘i, will be in San Francisco and Oakland next month for two events:

Saturday, October 1, 11 am
ILWU Local 10 Union Hall, 200 North Point
Professor Horne will also talk about his earlier book The White Pacific: U.S. Imperialism and Black Slavery in the South Seas after the Civil War, published by UH Press in 2007.

Sunday, October 2, 2pm
Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave.
The presentation is entitled “Communists in Paradise? Racism and Radicalism in the Making of Modern Hawaii (and a US President).”

Upcoming Author Events in September

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Carlos Andrade, author of Ha‘ena: Through the Eyes of Ancestors, will discuss how ancient and other points of view accumulate over time to create a unique story and sense of place. The event, “Telling the Story of Place: Ha‘ena,” will be held at the Kaua‘i Historical Society on Friday, September 16, at 5:30 pm. For more details, go to http://kauaihistoricalsociety.org/events/.

John Clark will be at Kaimuki Library on Sunday, September 18, to talk about his latest book, Hawaiian Surfing: Traditions from the Past. Go to HawaiiNewsNow for more information: http://urbanhonolulu.hawaiinewsnow.com/news/arts-culture/66825-meet-hawaiian-surfing-author-kaimuki-library.

The Japanese American National Museum will host a discussion by ShiPu Wang, author of Becoming American? The Art and Identity Crisis of Yasuo Kuniyoshi, on Saturday, September 24, at 2:00 pm. Check the JANM event calendar: http://www.janm.org/events/2011/09/24/ibecoming-american-the-art-and-identity-crisis-of-yasuo-kuniyoshii-by-shipu-wang/.

The Making of Burakumin in Modern Japan

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Embodying DifferenceThe burakumin, Japan’s largest minority group, have been the focus of an extensive yet strikingly homogenous body of Japanese language research. The master narrative in much of this work typically links burakumin to premodern occupational groups which engaged in a number of socially polluting tasks like tanning and leatherwork. This master narrative, however, when subjected to close scrutiny, tends to raise more questions than it answers, particularly for the historian. Is there really firm historical continuity between premodern outcaste and modern burakumin communities? Is the discrimination experienced by historic and contemporary outcaste communities actually the same? Does the way burakumin frame their own experience significantly affect mainstream understandings of their plight? Embodying Difference: The Making of Burakumin in Modern Japan, by Timothy D. Amos, is the result of a decade-and-a-half-long search for answers to these questions.

September 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3579-8 / $33.00 (PAPER)

Buddhist Healing, Chinese Knowledge, Islamic Formulas, and Wounds of War

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Confluences of MedicineConfluences of Medicine in Medieval Japan: Buddhist Healing, Chinese Knowledge, Islamic Formulas, and Wounds of War, by Andrew Edmund Goble, is the first book-length exploration in English of issues of medicine and society in premodern Japan. This multifaceted study weaves a rich tapestry of Buddhist healing practices, Chinese medical knowledge, Asian pharmaceuticals, and Islamic formulas as it elucidates their appropriation and integration into medieval Japanese medicine. It expands the parameters of the study of medicine in East Asia, which to date has focused on the subject in individual countries, and introduces the dynamics of interaction and exchange that coursed through the East Asian macro-culture.

September 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3500-2 / $52.00 (CLOTH)

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