We are delight­ed to fea­ture the accom­plished Native Hawai­ian artist and his­to­ri­an, Brook Kapūku­ni­ahi Park­er. He has illus­trat­ed sev­er­al chil­dren’s books for ʻAha Pūnana Leo Hawai­ian Emer­sion Schools and cre­at­ed numer­ous stun­ning com­mis­sion pieces for clients through­out Hawai’i. His pas­sion is to Brooke-Park­er­cre­ate breath­tak­ing art that brings life to our ances­tors, and he does so through his exten­sive knowl­edge of Native Hawai­ian his­to­ry and culture. 

Hauoli Makahi­ki Hou, every­one! I love the start of a shiny new year. We also cel­e­brate Chi­nese New Year around here. Kung Hee Fat Choy! What bet­ter way to start a new year but with tal­ent­ed Native Hawai­ian and Hawaiʻi based writ­ers and cre­ators! Meet the won­der­ful Dru San­ti­a­go, Hawaiʻi based illus­tra­tor and the 2021 Soci­ety of Chil­dren’s Book Writ­ers and Illus­tra­tors Nar­ra­tive Art award.

As 2022 ends, I look back with alo­ha and grat­i­tude to the many peo­ple who have made such a dif­fer­ence in my writ­ing life.

Our ongo­ing series with Native Hawai­ian and local Hawaiʻi writ­ers con­tin­ues this week with Caren Loebel-Fried, the tal­ent­ed, award-win­ning author/illustrator from Vol­cano, Hawaiʻi. Her beau­ti­ful block-print­ing focus­es on con­ser­va­tion and the nat­ur­al world.

Our ongo­ing series on Native Hawai­ian and local Hawaiʻi writ­ers con­tin­ues this week with Adam Keawe, the tal­ent­ed Native Hawai­ian writer and blog­ger. If you’re a reg­u­lar read­er of Ka Wai Ola O OHA, then you’ve no doubt read Adam’s won­der­ful­ly inter­est­ing, well-researched arti­cles about the his­to­ry and cul­ture of our people.