Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 21, Number 12, 1 December 2004 — ʻŌiwi [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ʻŌiwi

a native hawaiian journal

The ongoing attacks against Native Hawaiian rights, culture and identity have inspired many Kānaka Maoli to stand up and be counted. Fet us not forget the role of our poetry and literature in our quest for justice, as it is a reflection of who we are and a means to document history.

Maile Kēhaulani Sing is from the San Francisco Bay area. She first started writing about her relationship to Hawai'i after attending a Nā Pua No'eau Summer

Institute at the University of Hawai'i, Hilo in 1994, whieh she describes as "the first time in my life that I had felt that deep sense of history and belonging." Sing says: Poetry is the medium I use to express my existence, resisting the current efforts to erase Hawaiians from Hawai'i."

Maile Kehaulani Sing