Quote:
Originally Posted by
subba 
Thanks so much to everyone who responded, and especially to moananui for your helpful and very insightful comments. I would be curious to know if you (moananui) went to school/grew up in Hawaii or elsewhere?
Aloha Subha, I grew up and was raised in my native Maori culture in New Zealand. Since than lived all over the world, been HI the last 20 years and always back & forth NZ. Been involved with cross cultural work across the Pacific. Constantly mistaken for Hawaiian but thats ok for the divide is slight & bridged by many cultural similarities.
The HI cultural renaissance is echoed in NZ albeit in NZ on a more profound, deeper and a broader front. And it comes replete with a diverse literary tradition that is in fact closely aligned with & has been nurtured by acadaemia of University of HI and the same in NZ.
There are a number of writers who have emerged from this nexus incl a good sprinkling in jonah k's list. There's also a good number who come from the S Pacific & their take on things is representative of their home islands and quite different from that of HI.
But whatever, it's important to understand these emergent writers present a vastly different perspective from those of yore - Michener, Troost et al. And it is vast. Their writing reflects a more grounded and attuned take on their cultures. An insiders perspective. Telling their own stories rather than this being done by outsiders.
In no particular order some of these writers are:
- Albert Wendt: Samoa
- Patricia Grace: Maori
- Witi Ihamere: Maori
- Epeli Hau'ofa: Samoa
- Vilisoni Hereniko: Rotuman
- Dewe Gorode: New Caledonie
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