LIHUE Malia Nobrega-Olivera will be joined by Mehana Blaich Vaughan and Vernadette Vicuna Gonzalez today when they present Detours: Stories About Our Communities, at Kukui Grove Center at 7 p.m.
LIHU‘E — Malia Nobrega-Olivera will be joined by Mehana Blaich Vaughan and Vernadette Vicuna Gonzalez today when they present “Detours: Stories About Our Communities,” at Kukui Grove Center at 7 p.m.
Nobrega-Olivera, a familiar name associated with the successful OceanFest program hosted at the mall, will also host an introduction to ‘olelo Hawai‘i Hawaiian-language class starting at 5:30 p.m.
Many people first encounter Hawai‘i through the imagination — a postcard picture of hula girls, lu‘au, and an abundance of sun, surf and ocean.
The picturesque image of the 50th state is the surface of the Native Hawaiians’ struggle with the problems brought about by colonialism, military occupation, tourism, food insecurity, high costs of living and climate change.
“Detours: Stories About Our Communities” is a reinvention of the travel guide, redirecting readers from the fantasy of Hawai‘i as a tropical paradise and tourist destination toward a multilayered and holistic engagement with Hawai‘i’s culture and complex history, organizers said.
Nobrega-Olivera and Vaughan are contributors to “Detours,” and Gonzalez is editor of the book published in November 2019 by Dukes University Press.
They will present on the stories about communities and ‘aina featured in the book through a grant from the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities in cooperation with Hawai‘inuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge and Kukui Grove.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
