Kohala Center plans book talks, nature walks
The Kohala Center is hosting a series of book talks and nature walks through some of Hawaii Island’s native forests.
The events, designed for The Kohala Center’s Circle of Friends, features three of The Kohala Center’s Mellon-Hawaii doctoral and postdoctoral fellows, considered among Hawaii’s pre-eminent writers and thinkers. The scholars will lead the book talks at the Jacaranda Inn in Waimea in the fall. Next spring wildlife biologist and award-winning photographer Jack Jeffrey will guide nature walks through forests along the Puu Oo Trail, in the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge and on Kohala Mountain.
Keao NeSmith kicks off the series Saturday with a reading of “Ke Keiki Alii Liilii,” his Hawaiian translation of the classic children’s book “The Little Prince.” NeSmith, an instructor of Hawaiian and Tahitian languages at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, is currently translating The Hobbit,” and has translated “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There” in the hope of contributing to an expanding library of reading material for Hawaiian-language immersion schools.
On Oct. 4, Noelani Goodyear-Kopua will read from and lead a discussion about her latest book, “A Nation Rising: Hawaiian Movements for Life, Land, and Sovereignty,” which chronicles the history of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement from the 1970s to the present. Goodyear-Kaopua is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the UH-Manoa. She will be joined in the talk by co-editor Erin Kahunawaikaala Wright, a professor of educational administration at the Hawaiinuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at UH-Manoa.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer rounds out the book talks on Nov. 1 with readings from and discussion of his new work, “No Makou Ka Mana: Liberating the Nation,” which examines how the Hawaiian Kingdom’s ruling alii exercised their own agency and selectively appropriated Western tools and knowledge to strengthen and maintain the Hawaiian people. Beamer is an assistant professor in the Hui Aina Momona program split between the School of Hawaiian Knowledge and the Richardson School of Law at UH-Manoa.
The talks are sponsored in part by Hilo Bay Books and Kona Bay Books. Tea and refreshments will be served after each talk.
Nature walks with Jeffrey begin Feb. 21 with a 2 1/2-mile bird watching adventure along the Puu Oo Trail. The second walk is a 2-mile expedition into the Maulua Tract of Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge on April 25. The series concludes with a nature photography clinic and hike in the Puu Pili Biodiversity Preserve on Kohala Mountain on May 23.
To become a member of The Kohala Center’s Circle of Friends, visit kohalacenter.org/circle-of-friends or contact Cortney Okumura at 887-6411. Admission to each of the talks is $15 per person for members. The Puu Oo and Puu Pili nature walks are each $25 per person for members and include lunch; the Hakalau walk, which includes four-wheel drive transportation to and from the refuge, is $50 per person.
Advance registration is encouraged. To register, visit cof14.eventbrite.com or call The Kohala Center at 887-6411.