Reviews

Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawai'i by Hokulani K. Aikau, Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez

kiwi_of_serenity's review

challenging hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

5.0

Note: did not quite finish… i was on the downtown Oahu tour chapter when I had to return it to the library. I found this book while looking for a decolonial introduction to Hawaii, and this book filled that need perfectly. I lesrned a lot about Hawaii’s institutions and movements. I am grateful to all the authors who contributed to this anthology. 

kk1311's review against another edition

5.0

This one took me a lot longer than I thought it would…and that was probably because it was so sobering. While the premise is about how to engage with Hawaii in a way that is decolonial, I felt that the subtext was ultimately, don’t. Which…is more than fair. But of course, it is the colonizer’s responsibility to engage in ways that clean up the messes they’ve made. Bottom line…foreigners have done so much to hurt this land, and while that hurt doesn’t define it, there is a lot of work to be done to fix it. I learned so much from this book, things I wouldn’t have learned elsewhere…a very worthwhile read. Grateful the editors created it.

meredith_collins's review against another edition

5.0

This book is life changing. It took me months to read it all, but I feel like it opened my eyes not only to history I didn't know, but I see everything through a new lens because of how well this book exposes the colonialism and military occupation behind every facet of America.

onii7's review against another edition

5.0

Incredible scholars who identify the connections and power dynamics between a post-colonialist Hawaii to the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement, and how a self-sustaining future lies within these Native Hawaiian methods that they used in their society centuries ago.

mom2stitch's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

I learned so much about Hawaiian history and culture. It made me slow down and think. I think anyone who is planning a trip or just interested i. Hawaii should read this book 

l1brarygirl's review against another edition

5.0

Amazing book that should be required reading for all Americans (and any other tourist coming to visit Hawaiʻi).

We titled this book Detours because it is meant to redirect you from the fantasy of Hawaiʻi as a tropical paradise toward an engagement with Hawaiʻi that is pono (just, fitting)...While this place is indeed beautiful, it is not an exotic postcard or a tropical playground with happy hosts. People here struggle with the problems brought about by colonialism, military occupation, tourism, food insecurity, high costs of living, and the effects of a changing climate.
-Hōkūlani K. Aikau & Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez, Editors

Absolutely loved Malia Akutagawa's essay, "An Island Negotiating a Pathway for Responsible Tourism." I wonder how their process and traditions could be applied to the other Hawaiian islands. This last quote by Hanohano Naehu brought tears to my eyes:

Our blood is Kanaka. You cannot be Kanaka. Hawaiian is our nationality . . . You see this what we standing on? This is ʻāina and it matters so much that if you love this place and you don't wanna develop it, destroy it, [or] abuse it, then we on the same team. If you eyeing this place and its resources as a money-making vehicle for yourself, we enemies. Right? And it doesn't matter what race, religion, what sex you [are]. If you love this place and you can mālama our ʻāina the way we love it and our ancestors loved it, then brah, we can be more than friends, we can be family.

Further Reading:
Recent Kauai article on responsible tourism


Pop Sugar’s 2020 Reading Challenge - A book published the month of your birthday

sophiemr's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

shelby_amato's review

informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

chaylilee's review

hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

5.0