Kipuka Press Hawai‘i is  the name of my personal self-publishing company. It’s come into being in order to get my book Wahine Noa to the public. This website is advance publicity for it. The last article in the book is too important and timely to be left unread while I wait for the manuscript of the entire book to be ready for printing.

The word kipuka entered my universe in 1991 as part of civil resistance to the way the U.S. Hawaiian Homes Commission Act was being improperly implemented by the Department of Hawaiian Homelands.

In those days kipuka meant independent ventures by Hawaiians to establish enclaves of self-sufficiency that would reflect legal ownership or use of land for survival, or for community building and cultural purposes. Ili Noho Kai ‘O Anahola on the island of Kaua‘i was the one I was involved with. Its story is told in Wahine Noa. In general the title means “woman with no restictions.” The book itself is what I call a proactive memoir for it documents the public support, the knowledge I gained, and the spiritual journey I’ve been on since I stepped forward to help Keep Hawaiian Land in Hawaiian Hands.

I capitalized on the word by relating it to another Hawaiian word: puka, to which it bears a resemblance. I had heard the expression “puka trou,” to indicate consistent hard work to overcome obstacles.

“Puka trou.” Pidgin English. Puka = hole. Trou is from the English word through. Puka trou, then, is achieving an objective, right through the ranks of opposition. This is what Hawaiians are doing in order to get their rights restored.

It was much later that I learned that kipuka was a geological term, meaning an ecological niche where plant and animal life can flourish and evolve, not molested by volcanic lava flows around it.

Kipuka, then, are actual physical remnant islands of forest, like small time capsules. They are human pockets of resistance to injustice. They are cultural communities where “old ways are maintained in now days,” and for my purposes, bringing all three together, Kipuka Press Hawai‘i is an oasis for the free press.

Not content with “living a lie,” as one of my Hawaiian friends calls U.S. ownership and governance of his country, I’m  proactive about my views and feelings regarding the authentic Hawai‘i. I wish to see justice served for the Hawaiian Kingdom, joining those voices that against seemingly impervious odds, insist that we can and will “puka trou” to have our country restored to us.

Apart from this major emphasis, my postings on this website look backwards to anything I’ve already produced. The rest is serendipity.

Click on “Articles” above for Behold Hawai‘i! The Authenticity Advantage That Will Impel U.S. De-occupation of the Hawaiian Islands, and prepare to be intrigued.

I welcome your comments:

“Wahine Noa”

A BOOK LIKELY TO RAISE EYEBROWS

AND FOSTER SELF-EXAMINATION . . .

WAHINE NOA goes below surface values to a place of integrity that many of us cannot live without. It gives a view of Hawai‘i that many refuse to acknowledge.

If they did, then native rights and international status and the corresponding U.S. obligations to them would take a different turn.

    In memories that have marked her life, the author maps out a “stolen citizenry’s” efforts to surmount the pronouncements of domestic laws that belong, not to them, but to the American occupier who continues to misrepresent legal actuality. But it is in the the new way that the author pays homage to the text of “the distant night,” The Kumulipo creation myth, that the tie to the then and now is revealed with surprising clarity.

AS A BRIDGE ACROSS TIME, THIS BOOK AND COMPANION CD EXTEND THE ANCIENT GENEALOGY OF THE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE TO THE SCHOLARSHIP AND CIVIL RESISTANCE OF TODAY

WAHINE NOA

woman with no restrictions

a proactive memoir of life in Hawai’i

A fourth generation Hawaiian National, Keahi Felix never set out to island hop. Born on Maui, she grew up on O‘ahu, lived for many years on Kaua‘i, and now resides happily on Hawai‘i Island. Wahine Noa is her first book, whose unpredictable multi-genre style, the author uncomplainingly attributes to some kind of genie in her make-up that prompts her to find various ways to walk a straight line.