Aina Hanau

Aina Hanau Synopsis

'Aina Hanau / Birth Land is a powerful collection of new poems by Kanaka ?Oiwi (Native Hawaiian) poet Brandy Nalani McDougall. 'Aina hanau-or the land of one's birth-signifies identity through intimate and familial connections to place and creates a profound bond between the people in a community. McDougall's poems flow seamlessly between 'Olelo Hawai'i and English, forming rhythms and patterns that impress on the reader a deep understanding of the land. Tracing flows from the mountains to the ocean, from the sky to the earth, and from ancestor to mother to child, these poems are rooted in the rich ancestral and contemporary literature of Hawai?i -mo?olelo, mo?oku?auhau, and mele -honoring Hawaiian ?aina, culture, language, histories, aesthetics, and futures.

The poems in Aina Hanau / Birth Land cycle through sacred and personal narratives while exposing and fighting ongoing American imperialism, settler colonialism, militarism, and social and environmental injustice to protect the ?aina and its people. The ongoing environmental crisis in Hawai?i, inextricably linked to colonialism and tourism, is captured with stark intensity as McDougall writes, Violence is what we settle for / because we've been led to believe / green paper can feed us / more than green land. The experiences of birth, motherhood, miscarriage, and the power of Native Hawaiian traditions and self-advocacy in an often dismissive medical system is powerfully narrated by the speaker of the titular poem, written for McDougall's daughters.

'Aina Hanau reflects on what it means to be from and belong to an ?aina hanau, as well as what it means to be an 'a¯ina ha¯nau, as all mothers serve as the first birth lands for their children.