Ancestral Places: Understanding Kanaka Geographies

First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies

by Katrina-Ann R. Kapa'anaokalaokeola Nakoa Oliveira

Ancestral Places explores the deep connections that ancestral Kanaka (Native Hawaiians) enjoyed with their environment. It honors the mo‘olelo (historical accounts) of the ancestral places of our kupuna (ancestors), and reveals how these mo‘olelo and our relationships with the ‘aina (land) inform a Kanaka sense of place.

Katrina-Ann R. Kapa‘anaokalaokeola Nakoa Oliveira elucidates a Kanaka geography and provides contemporary scholars with insights regarding traditional culture―including the ways in which Kanaka utilize cartographic performances to map our ancestral places and retain our mo‘olelo, such as reciting creation accounts, utilizing nuances embedded in language, and dancing hula.

A Kanaka by birth, a kumu ‘olelo Hawai‘i (language teacher) by profession, and a geographer by training, Oliveira’s interests intersect at the boundary where words and place-making meet her ancestral land. Thus, Ancestral Places imbues the theoretical with sensual practice. The book’s language moves fluidly between Hawaiian and English, terms are nimbly defined, and the work of the field is geographic layers are enacted within the text, new understandings created―not just among lexica, but amidst illustrations, charts, terms, and poetry.  

In Ancestral Places , Oliveira reasserts both the validity of ancestral knowledge systems and their impact in modernity. Her discussion of Kanaka geographies encompasses the entire archipelago, offering a new framework in Kanaka epistemology.

216 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2014

Reviews

[Kacey Lundgren · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my quest to learn more about my family, this book helped fill in some key missing pieces that I have been searching for. Not only that, I learned so much more. It was wonderful to find a contemporary kumu who patiently and clearly explained new trends, Hawaiian language, history, and culture. I’ve been reading all of the older texts, Fornander, Malo, Kamakau, etc, but I know some things have changed since then and language has evolved. This book had so much of what I was looking for.

[Josh D'Addario · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an incredibly insightful book. There is tons of thought and care put into the research and if you want to better understand Hawaiian culture and history this will absolutely do it. The level of trust in the audience is impressive, with a bold use of Hawaiian words as opposed to English cognates for a more robust expression of truth. For people like me that are very ignorant on the topic, this book was eye opening.