Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 9, 1 September 1986 — Book Review [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Book Review

Ni'ihau Shell Leis By Linda Paik Moriarty University of Hawaii Press

There exists a range of "how-to-do" books eon cerning Hawaiian arts and crafts, from the classical works of Te Rangi Hiroa (Sir Peter 8uck) to small, tourist-oriented panv phiets on huia. Marie Mae Dona!d's book on Hawanan lei(s), with its glossy; colored photo graphs, personal eom-

mentary, and detaiied line drawings and instructions, broughi a new style and dimension to books on Ha waiian arts and crafts. Linda Moriarty's Ni'ihau Sheli Leis continues this excellence in pub!ication, noi only for the format but a!so tor the superb photograohs and accompanying text Ni'ihau shell !ei(s) were collected by early European explorers and are still highly prized as fine )ewelry. Moriarty has chapters concerning every aspect irv volved īn the making of these shel! lei(s) from collecting to even a bnef chapter on how to select one. Mueh of her histoncal information is modern as it appears that there are not too many primary sources concerned with Ni'ihau shells.

However, Moriarty appears to have exhausted the known available sources to give a "definitive" account of history of Ni' ihau shell lei(s) Mueh of the work placed into creating this book ean be seen in the ehoiee, arrangemerit and photography of the various styles and types of lei(s). The photographs of Leland Cook, a former photographer of the Tiffany jewelry company of New York and his son, Christopher, are well designed and executed. Although this could be viewed as a "coffee table" book, it is well worth the price as an "heritage" edition to piaee in anyone's eolleehon or library of Hawaiian studies publication — MNC

By Maleolm Naea Chun Cultural Affairs Officer "Ho'oponopono" £. Victoria Shook An East-West Center Book Institute of Culture anel Communication Price $10

The exact title of this new East-West Center book is "Ho'oponopono: Contemporary Uses of a Hawaiian ■Probtem-Solving Process. " This is a study in how a "traditional" cultural practice ean be adapted to help modern society, especially in the area of conflict resolution. In the trend of the modern world it is usually native peoples who have had to adopt to modern society and not vice versa. Shook became interested in the process of ho'oponopono through the book, Nana I Ke Kumu while at graduate school at the University of Hawaii. Living in Guam where the native Chamorro culture faces off with modern life, Shook saw the study of ho'oponopono as a model whieh could demonstrate the reversal of the eultural exchange in the world. Shook is cautious to point out several points to the reader about this study. She acknowledges that the ho'oponopono referred to in the study is but one variation and even at that it is "difficult to know if you have even been able to survey the boundaries (of this process)."

The basic core of the book examines seven cases where "ho'oponopono" was adapted and used in situations ranging from social work to a wilderness program. The difficulty of this book is in its analytical explanations of the process of ho'oponopono. At times Shook's work becomes too bogged down in defining the stages and methodo!ogy of ho'oponopono. This may be good for those not familiar at all with the process, however, for loeal people it may not be the best way of explanation.

Even Shook notices the possibility of such a dilemma when something an get lost in the trans!ation of one eulture to another. She writes: "There is a great irony in the conclusion that the distinctively Hawaiian features of ho'oponopono are those that are most vulnerable to change since these same features are the ones that many individuals say attract them to the practice." This book would be of value if the reader is interested in transcultural exchanges as well as the understanding of therapeutic universals.