Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 8, 1 August 1986 — "Ku Kanaka" Focuses on Hawaiian Values [ARTICLE]

"Ku Kanaka" Focuses on Hawaiian Values

"Ku Kanaka — Stand Tall, A Search for Hawaiian Values," is a 550-page book by George Hu'eu Sanford Kanahele just released by the University of Hawaii Press. The book, a product of the Waiaha Foundation whieh is dedicated to the affirmation of Hawaiian values, was five years in the making. It will go on public sale in September at $30 a copy. It has already created an impact in the community as it has served as the basis for a series of video documentaries on Hawaiian values produced by the Hawaiian Studies Program of the Department of Education whieh is currently being shown U/eekly on Public Television. "Ku Kanaka— Stand Tall" is the first rigorous, eomprehensive attempt to deal with the question and problem of who and what is a Hawaiian. Starting with a modern times explanation of the basic beliefs and values of ancient Hawaii, Kanahele reexamines primal Hawaiian society and in the process presents new material and a new perspective on Hawaiian culture. His analyses of primal technology, economics and Hawaiian ideas about space and time, science, phi-

losophy and mathematics are the first of their kind. Kanahele also offers original, and, at time, provocative insights about Hawaiian religion, mythology, cosmology, genealogy, ritual and customs. This is a book for Hawaiians — but not for Hawaiians only. It is also for anyone interested in Hawaii, its people, its past and most of all its future. The foreword is by former state senator and Hawaiian businessman Kenneth F. Brown. Kanahele, born and raised in Hawaii, is a graduate of the Kamehameha Schools and Brigham Young University and received his Ph.D. from Cornell University. He is editor of Hawaiian Music and Musicians and author of a forthcoming book on the life of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop.

He 'elele ka oe na ke kanaka. A dream is a bearer of messages to man. — Mary Kawena Pukui.