Hawaii Book – Polynesia
The collection of Mark and Carolyn Blackburn, one of the greatest private collections of Polynesian art in the world. In this book, Polynesia: The Mark and Carolyn Blackburn Collection of Polynesian Art
The geographic area covers the Pacific Ocean from Hawai‘i to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) to ‘Aotearoa (New Zealand), the Austral Islands, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Futuna, the Gambier Islands, Malden, the Marquesas Islands, Niue Island, Nukuoro Island, Rennell Island, Rotuma Island, Samoa, Tahiti, Takuu, Tokelau, Tonga, and the Tuamotu Islands.
The book features both ceremonial and functional traditional forms, from delicate ivory ornaments and decorated barkcloth to formidable weaponry and imposing sculpture in coral, wood, and stone. In Polynesia, the visual arts and their associated objects serve as physical representations of the underlying aesthetic, social, and religious aspects of the island cultures. In some cases, these eloquent objects may be all that remains to speak of these once-living traditions.
Polynesia: The Mark and Carolyn Blackburn Collection of Polynesian Art was a winner of the Ka Palapala Poʻokela Awards in 2011 for Excellence in Design, Excellence in Illustrative or Photographic Books, and the Samuel M. Kamakau Award for Hawai’i Book of the Year.
Ka Palapala Poʻokela Awards 2011 – Honorable Mentions
Here are the Ka Palapala Poʻokela Award Honorable Mentions, recognizing Hawaii’s best books published in 2011:
Excellence in Children’s Hawaiian Culture
Kohala Kuamoʻo: Naeʻole’s Race to Save a King by Kekauleleanaeʻole Kawaiʻaeʻa, illus. by Aaron Kawaiʻaeʻa, moʻolelo by Luana and Walter Kawaiʻaeʻa (Kamehameha Publishing)
Excellence in Children’s Illustrative/Photographic Books
Plenty Saimin by Feng Feng Hutchins, illus. by Adriano F. Abatayo III (Island Paradise Publishing)
Excellence in Children’s Literature
Kohala Kuamoʻo: Naeʻole’s Race to Save a King by Kekauleleanaeʻole Kawaiʻaeʻa, illus. by Aaron Kawaiʻaeʻa, moʻolelo by Luana and Walter Kawaiʻaeʻa (Kamehameha Publishing)
Excellence in Hawaiian Culture
A Pocket Guide to the Battle of Nuʻuanu 1795: An Illustrated Pocket Guide to the Oʻahu Battlefield by Neil Bernard Dukas (Mutual Publishing)
Excellence in Literature
Tweakerville: Life and Death in Hawaiʻi’s Ice World by Alexei Melnick (Mutual Publishing)
Excellence in Illustrative or Photographic Books
Akule photographs by Wayne Levin, essays by Thomas Farber and Frank Stewart (Editions Limited)
Excellence in Natural Science
Hawaiian Birds of the Sea: Nā Manu Kai by Robert J. Shallenberger (University of Hawaiʻi Press)
Excellence in Text or Reference Books
Asian Supernatural by Alex Paman (Mutual Publishing)
Regulating Paradise: Land Use Controls in Hawaiʻi, Second Edition by David L. Callies (University of Hawaiʻi Press)
Excellence in Cookbooks
What Maui Likes to Eat by Chef Tylun Pang (Mutual Publishing)
Excellence in Special Interest Books
Ancient Sites of Oʻahu: A Guide to Hawaiian Archaeological Places of Interest, Revised Edition by Van James (Bishop Museum Press)
Excellence in Nonfiction
The Value of Hawaiʻi: Knowing the Past, Shaping the Future edited by Craig Howes and Jon Osorio (University of Hawaiʻi Press)
Excellence in Design
The Blue Tomato: The Inspirations Behind the Cuisine of Alan Wong by Alan Wong with Arnold Hiura, photography by David Murphey, Yasuo Kondo and Alan Wong (Watermark Publishing)
Excellence in “Aloha from beyond the Sea Samuel M. Kamakau”
Captain Cooked: Hawaiian Mystery of Romance, Revenge and Recipes! by S.P. Grogan (Addison & Highsmith)
Ka Palapala Poʻokela Awards 2011 – Winners
Here are the Ka Palapala Poʻokela Award Winners, recognizing Hawaii’s best books published in 2011:
Samuel M. Kamakau Award for Hawai’i Book of the Year
Polynesia: The Mark and Carolyn Blackburn Collection of Polynesian Art by Adrienne L. Kaeppler (University of Hawaiʻi Press)
Excellence in Children’s Hawaiian Culture
Legend of the Gourd adapted and illus. by Caren Keʻala Loebel-Fried, Hawaiian translation by Kaliko Beamer-Trapp (Bishop Museum Press)
Excellence in Children’s Illustrative/Photographic Books
Legend of the Gourd adapted and illus. by Caren Keʻala Loebel-Fried, Hawaiian translation by Kaliko Beamer-Trapp (Bishop Museum Press)
Excellence in Children’s Literature
Plenty Saimin by Feng Feng Hutchins, illus. by Adriano F. Abatayo III (Island Paradise Publishing)
Excellence in Hawaiian Culture
Mai Paʻa i Ka Leo: Historical Voice in Hawaiian Primary Materials, Looking Forward and Listening Back by M. Puakea Nogelmeier (Bishop Museum Press)
Excellence in Literature
Anshū: Dark Sorrow by Juliet S. Kono (Bamboo Ridge Press)
Excellence in Illustrative or Photographic Books
Polynesia: The Mark and Carolyn Blackburn Collection of Polynesian Art by Adrienne L. Kaeppler (University of Hawaiʻi Press)
Excellence in Natural Science
A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Hawaiʻi: The Main Islands and Offshore Waters by Jim Denny (University of Hawaiʻi Press)
Excellence in Text or Reference Books
Ancient Sites of Oʻahu: A Guide to Hawaiian Archaeological Places of Interest, Revised Edition by Van James (Bishop Museum Press)
Excellence in Cookbooks
The Blue Tomato: The Inspirations Behind the Cuisine of Alan Wong by Alan Wong with Arnold Hiura, photography by David Murphey, Yasuo Kondo and Alan Wong (Watermark Publishing)
Excellence in Special Interest Books
The Polynesian Tattoo Today by Tricia Allen (Mutual Publishing)
Excellence in Nonfiction
Mai Paʻa i Ka Leo: Historical Voice in Hawaiian Primary Materials, Looking Forward and Listening Back by M. Puakea Nogelmeier (Bishop Museum Press)
Excellence in Design
Polynesia: The Mark and Carolyn Blackburn Collection of Polynesian Art by Adrienne L. Kaeppler (University of Hawaiʻi Press)
Excellence in “Aloha from beyond the Sea Samuel M. Kamakau”
Gaff by Shan Correa (Peachtree Publishers)
People’s Choice Award
The Polynesian Tattoo Today by Tricia Allen (Mutual Publishing)
John Dominis Holt Award
William Hamilton of University of Hawai’i Press
Rell Sunn Queen of Makaha
Stories of Rell Sunn: Queen of Makaha
Sunn’s love of surfing began at age 4, and turned into a career as a rider, reporter, and contest organizer. She also free-dived, spearfished, picked limu (seaweed) and ‘opihi (limpets). She was a true child of the ocean, as her Hawaiian middle name “the heart of the sea” implies. This beautiful Hawaiian-Chinese girl with rich brown skin, long dark hair and a near-constant overpowering smile had an effect on people. Her spirit seemed to conquer all and make her universally loved by everyone who came into contact with her. Rell Sunn was an ambassador of surfing, a teacher and a promoter of Hawaiian language and culture. She was overwhelmingly loved.
This book of photos and anecdotes celebrates the multitalented, multiethnic island icon of Rell, and is able to accept her death in 1998 at the age of 47 after a 14-year battle with cancer. It is a wonderfully fitting and very moving testament to Rell’s exuberance with living and beautiful soul.
WS Merwin US Laureate
W.S. Merwin, has been named Poet Laureate of the United States. Merwin, who lives in Hawaii, is one of this country’s most distinguished, decorated, and productive poets. Previous writers selected by the Librarian of Congress include Robert Penn Warren, Richard Wilbur, Rita Dove, Joseph Brodsky, Robert Pinsky, and Kay Ryan.
Merwin has also been awarded the Pulitzer Prize twice. The first was for his book The Carrier of Ladders
He lives on 18 acres of land that started as a tropical forest, then was logged and burned, then used for sugar cane and pineapple, and finally for grazing cattle. Merwin wanted to re-create a Hawaiian tropical forest, so he hauled loads of horse manure, wood chips, and seaweed onto the property to rejuvenate the soil depleted from decades of erosion. Hundreds of species of native trees, palms, and plants now form a canopy around his home in secluded Maui. He also helped design and build his wooden house, install solar panels for electricity, and a roof catchment system to capture rainwater.
He has developed a close relationship with the native culture and ancient language, and has incorporated Hawaii subjects in his poetry. His work The Folding Cliffs
About poetry, he says, “It’s like making a joke. If you get one word wrong at the end of a joke, you’ve lost the whole thing.”
Kauai Book Taylor Camp
Taylor Camp is a book that reminds us of one period in time when all things were possible. It is the story of what really happened when a group of hippies, anti-war activists, surfers, and troubled Vietnam vets formed a clothing-optional, drug-friendly tree house village at the end of the road on the North Shore of Kauai.
In 1969 the brother of Elizabeth Taylor bailed out a rag-tag band of thirteen young mainlanders jailed on Kauai for vagrancy and invited them to camp on his oceanfront land, then left them on their own, without any restrictions, regulations, or supervision. Soon waves of hippies, refugees from campus riots, war protesters, and Vietnam vets found their way to the North Shore to expand this tree house village. In 1971 John Wehrheim began seriously photographing Taylor Camp as a settlement of refugees living next to a crystalline stream in a tropical forest along a beach in paradise. In 1977, after condemning the village to make way for a State Park, government officials torched the camp, leaving little but ashes and memories of the ‘best days of our lives’.
Thirty years later John tracked down and interviewed these residents, their neighbors, and the government officials who finally got rid of them and created this book Taylor Camp
