Kailua History Bound, Ready For Good Read
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Del.icio.usIf a community can be captured in words, the book Kailua has done it. The long-awaited history of the area - retold and recorded primarily by its own residents - is finally out and available to the public at BookEnds in Kailua, Native Books/Na Mea Hawaii and from Kailua Historical Society.
There are 3,000 copies in the first printing, and sales have been brisk, said Pat Banning, owner of BookEnds.“We’ve been selling tons of them,” she said. Although the three-pound book sells for $39.95, she pronounced it “a good value, with lots of interesting photos,and each chapter is done by a Kailua personality or scholar.“Banning also hears from customers who are anxious to read about themselves in the book.
KHS members and a large group of guests will celebrate the official book launch on Valentine’s Day with a backyard potluck party “Kailua style” at a home in the neighborhood.
The rest of us can line up for the 276-page hard-back, coffee-table sized account of the ahupua’a. It’s a handsome volume that spans centuries of geography and culture through scholarly research, chants, vivid photos, maps, oral histories of early settlements and accounts of post-World War II small-kid times on up through statehood.
The project is published by Barbara Pope Book Design, funded by Harold K.L.Castle Foundation and coordinated by Kailua’s committed historians, who have been collecting details and training people on how to record stories before they are lost.
“We’d better get these things down because (the kupuna) won’t be here forever,” said Paul Brennan, a local anthropologist who has spent the past 25 years doing just that with more than 100 residents.
“A lot of people won’t look at Kailua the same way after they read it,“added Barbara Pope, the award-winning publisher and third-generation resident. “It gives a broader perception of the ahupua’a as a whole - Kailua’s not just the beach thing.”
Authors are John Culliney, Davianna McGregor, Sally-Jo Bowman, Kahikina de Silva, Kihei de Silva, Diane Drigot, Deborah Dunn, Carol Silva, Frank Stewart, Brett Uprichard, Jane Allen, Chuck Burrows,Maya Saffery and Brennan.
“It’s such a beautiful book,” Maile Meyer said.“We all take ownership of this, as it helps us look closer at where we live and how we connect to it.”
Proceeds from book sales will benefit KHS and its educational programs. For more information, call Meyer at 783-2786.
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