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Kamalani Hurley Native Hawaiian author
Kamalani Hurley Native Hawaiian author
Kamalani Hurley Native Hawaiian author

Pacific Islander

Interview with Native Hawaiian Illustrator Malia Pila

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malia-pila

I like to think I’m a word­smith. I can often take an idea and work to find the best words to tell a sto­rymalia-pila I hope my young read­ers will love.

But a chil­dren’s book is way more than words. Beau­ti­ful illus­tra­tions are key to mak­ing well-writ­ten sto­ries and turn­ing them into visu­al mag­ic for young readers.

Tal­ent­ed Native Hawai­ian illus­tra­tor Malia Pila is one such magi­cian. Her charm­ing, gor­geous images have a cin­e­mat­ic aes­thet­ic that young read­ers and their grownups love.

We are so pleased to talk sto­ry with Malia today.

Alo­ha e Malia! For those who haven’t met you, could you please tell us a lit­tle about yourself? 

My name is Malia Pila, and I’m an illus­tra­tor work­ing pri­mar­i­ly in pic­ture books these days, but I have also worked in visu­al devel­op­ment for ani­ma­tion! I enjoy explor­ing dif­fer­ent media and styles with my art­work when­ev­er I can as well as research­ing niche things like his­tor­i­cal cos­tum­ing and the mythol­o­gy of dif­fer­ent cultures.

My biggest sup­port­er for near­ly 15 years now has been my (soon-to-be) hus­band. My career path has not been very clear or lin­ear and even when I’ve had moments of self-doubt, he has always been at my side to help me back onto my feet and find inspi­ra­tion again. 

Con­grat­u­la­tions on your engage­ment! Where did you grow up? 

I grew up in a hand­ful of dif­fer­ent places. A large part of my child­hood was spent between Hilo where my father is from and Kona, but we even­tu­al­ly moved to the main­land, and I spent my teen years in places like Flori­da and Arkansas.

Poliahu
Illus­tra­tion @ Malia Pila

What has been your jour­ney to becom­ing a pro­fes­sion­al illus­tra­tor? Why did you become an illustrator/artist? Have you always want­ed to cre­ate art? 

I have always had a desire to cre­ate art, but it took some time to land specif­i­cal­ly on “pro­fes­sion­al illus­tra­tor.” My old­er sis­ter intro­duced me to draw­ing when I was about 6, and while I’m sure I drew plen­ty before then, I specif­i­cal­ly remem­ber her intro­duc­tion hav­ing a pro­found impact on me and ignit­ing a spark that has just refused to die down since.

I’ve been lucky that my fam­i­ly has nev­er put down my dreams or insist­ed I piv­ot to some­thing else com­plete­ly. So by the time I made it to uni­ver­si­ty, I had refined an incred­i­bly vague career plan of “ARTIST” into a more spe­cif­ic goal to work in the ani­ma­tion indus­try. I stuck with that ulti­mate­ly, but I also found myself exposed to new things that real­ly began to turn my head like illus­trat­ing for pic­ture books and study­ing art history.

After uni­ver­si­ty, I was left in a place I think a lot of fresh grad­u­ates are in after art school. There is so much uncer­tain­ty in many cre­ative indus­tries, so it can be over­whelm­ing. I’ve tried to just focus on what makes me hap­py to cre­ate and that has real­ly led me to where I am now.

What kinds of illus­tra­tion work have you done? What do you enjoy most about illus­trat­ing, espe­cial­ly for a young audi­ence? What are some of your great­est challenges? 

I enjoy illus­trat­ing for the sheer enjoy­ment of cre­at­ing, to be hon­est. It is so fun to think of some­thing that per­haps no one has ever thought of before or, alter­na­tive­ly, what many many peo­ple have thought of in very dif­fer­ent ways, and see it put down on paper or can­vas. When it comes to illus­trat­ing for a young audi­ence specif­i­cal­ly, what I love about it is try­ing to inspire the same thoughts and feel­ings I once had as a child look­ing at art­work in books or rum­mag­ing through dif­fer­ent cov­ers at the library.

That itself sort of becomes my great­est chal­lenge, too. I want to con­vey so much with my art some­times that I have to sit back and pick what to include so as not to over­whelm an indi­vid­ual illus­tra­tion or mud­dy a con­cept and message.

Fall-scene
Illus­tra­tion @ Malia Pila

Do you have a favorite medi­um to work with? Why is that?

I recent­ly picked up gouache paint­ing again, and while I’m still refa­mil­iar­iz­ing myself with the medi­um, I’d say it is becom­ing a new favorite. For the most part, I’ve worked pri­mar­i­ly dig­i­tal­ly as an illus­tra­tor until recent­ly, and while I love all that dig­i­tal work offers in the way of flex­i­bil­i­ty and ease, I real­ly enjoy get­ting my hands back on some­thing more tac­tile and messy like paints.

Can you share a bit about what you’re work­ing on now? What’s your inspiration? 

Some­thing that has always inspired me is my child­hood grow­ing up in Hawaiʻi. I have such fond mem­o­ries of sit­ting on my grandpa’s lanai eat­ing man­a­pua, gawk­ing at tide pools, and play­ing with sleep­ing grass as a kid. On the flip side, leav­ing all of that and mov­ing to the main­land was incred­i­bly dif­fi­cult for me. I’m just start­ing out with the idea, but I’m hop­ing to play with it a lit­tle and see if these inspi­ra­tions can come togeth­er as either a series of illus­tra­tions to speak on these expe­ri­ences or, who knows, maybe even a pic­ture book!

That sounds so fun! What are your hopes and dreams for the year and beyond in terms of your career and what you do you hope for your career in the future?

I’m start­ing 2025 with a lot of hopes! I recent­ly signed with an agent so I’m look­ing for­ward to debut­ing on new books and oth­er projects in the new year. My dream for the next year is to build a good foun­da­tion for myself as a pro­fes­sion­al illus­tra­tor and past that? I would love to explore the pos­si­bil­i­ty of pub­lish­ing a book as an author/illustrator myself. To be added along­side oth­er pub­lished Pacif­ic Islanders would be such a dream!

What advice would you give an aspir­ing illus­tra­tor?

It is okay to piv­ot. It is okay to take a break, too! I went through sev­er­al years of my life when cre­at­ing art was not a pri­or­i­ty for me because I was deal­ing with some very dif­fi­cult things. I felt bad about this for a while but hon­est­ly, a break was what I need­ed and I do not feel as if I irrev­o­ca­bly dam­aged my career by tak­ing one as I even­tu­al­ly came back rest­ed and reen­er­gized and caught right back up to my peers. Some­times tak­ing a chance to sit back and take in oth­er media can be so help­ful when you’ve been cre­at­ing end­less­ly for a while and feel burnt out.

Sleeping
Illus­tra­tion @ Malia Pila

What kinds of books do you enjoy read­ing? Any favorites?

I read a lot of his­tor­i­cal fic­tion and some of my favorite books tend to fall into that cat­e­go­ry. 2024 was unfor­tu­nate­ly a slow read­ing year for me but one of my favorites that I fin­ished was The God of End­ings by Jacque­line Holland.

I’m hop­ing to read so much more in 2025. Specif­i­cal­ly, I want to focus on read­ing more books by oth­er Pacif­ic Islanders. In the past, I’ve found it a lit­tle dif­fi­cult to track down titles but thanks to resources like Pacif­ic Islanders in Pub­lish­ing, I have a grow­ing read­ing list to work through.

What’s your online presence? 

My port­fo­lio web­site is maliapila.com. I’m a lit­tle more active these days on Insta­gram (or I try to be, any­way) and can be found there at maliapila.art. I wel­come any­one that wants to chat or connect!

Maha­lo nui, Malia, for talk­ing sto­ry with us! We’re look­ing for­ward to hear­ing more from you soon! To learn more about Malia and see her won­der­ful illus­tra­tions, vis­it her web­site, Malia Pila.com, and fol­low her on Ista­gram at maliapila.art. Malia is rep­re­sent­ed by James McGowan at Book­Ends Lit­er­ary Agency.

Images cour­tesy of Malia Pila.

Book Review: Tala Learns to Siva

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Cover

There’s some­thing mag­i­cal about chil­dren’s books writ­ten by Native Hawai­ian and Pacif­ic Island authors.

Until recent­ly, sto­ries about our com­mu­ni­ties told by our peo­ple were large­ly miss­ing in chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture. Thank­ful­ly, the times are chang­ing, and more voic­es are emerg­ing to tell our own sto­ries. The best of these nar­ra­tives sing with heart and authen­tic­i­ty that comes from being root­ed in the community.

Tala Learns to Siva is one of those sto­ries. This delight­ful Pacif­ic Island sto­ry by tal­ent­ed author Kealani Netane deserves a space not just on a child’s book­shelf but on school library shelves everywhere. 

Cover
Illus­tra­tion @ Dung Ho from Tala Learns to Siva by Kealani Netane (Scholastic/Orchard Books, 2024)

Young Tala watch­es her Aun­ty Siva per­form the tra­di­tion­al Samoan taualu­ga. Cap­ti­vat­ed by her aun­t’s grace and beau­ty, Tala asks her to teach her to dance in time for her grand­moth­er’s birth­day par­ty. But as with most things worth learn­ing, what at first seems easy actu­al­ly takes work and prac­tice. Will Tala learn to dance in time to share her siva with her grand­moth­er? She decides to do her best.

Like all good sto­ries for chil­dren, Tala Learns to Siva res­onates with young read­ers every­where. They will eas­i­ly relate to the uni­ver­sal sto­ry of the young pro­tag­o­nist’s deter­mi­na­tion to over­come her doubts and fears. Tala prac­tices every­where she goes and works hard to mas­ter the hand and foot move­ments. But it’s when Tala under­stands that the dance con­nects her to her ances­tors that she tru­ly begins to shine.

Tala-and-Family
Illus­tra­tion @ Dung Ho from Tala Learns to Siva by Kealani Netane (Scholastic/Orchard Books, 2024)

The illus­tra­tions by New York Times best­selling illus­tra­tor Dung Ho are col­or­ful and vibrant. The art beau­ti­ful­ly invites the read­er to become a part of Tala’s island family.

Two spreads are my par­tic­u­lar favorites. I love the dance spread on pages 20–21. Both text and art do a won­der­ful job of cap­tur­ing Tala’s joy and tri­umph as she dances the taualu­ga solo for her fam­i­ly and friends. 

And I espe­cial­ly adore the fam­i­ly’s reac­tion to Tala’s solo on page 22. Grow­ing up in Hawai’i, I’ve attend­ed many Samoan par­ties and cel­e­bra­tions, and they often end just as page 22 so effec­tive­ly shows, with elders and oth­ers join­ing in on the fun. This page is my very favorite, I think, because it speaks to me per­son­al­ly, because these folks could be my own friends and neigh­bors. And isn’t being able to relate to a char­ac­ter or to a piece of art what makes a book special?

Tala-dances-solo
Illus­tra­tion @ Dung Ho from Tala Learns to Siva by Kealani Netane (Scholastic/Orchard Books, 2024)

The back mat­ter includes a glos­sary of terms and an author’s note. In it Kealani express­es her love for Samoan dance and tra­di­tions that she grate­ful­ly pass­es on to her children.

Tala Learns to Siva is a won­der­ful intro­duc­tion to Pacif­ic Island cul­ture and a most wor­thy addi­tion to any bookshelf.

Tala Learns to Siva
Writ­ten by Kealani Netane, illus­trat­ed by Dung Ho
Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholas­tic Books, 2024
ISBN 978–1338859317
Sug­gest­ed for ages 4 — 8 

Meet author Kealani Netane in our talk sto­ry interview! 

Please read our dis­claimer to learn our book review pol­i­cy. Mahalo!

Gal­ley review copy and images cour­tesy of Kealani Netane.

Interview with Native Hawaiian Author Kealani Netane

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If you rec­og­nize Native Hawaiian/Sāmoan writer Kealani Netane’s name, you’re prob­a­bly a fan of her pop­u­lar book­sta­gram, Lit­tle Pasi­fi­ka Read­ers. Or you might you rec­og­nize her from her thought­ful blog posts at Pacif­ic Islanders in Pub­lish­ing. Now add chil­dren’s book author to her list of pro­fes­sion­al accomplishments.

Her won­der­ful debut pic­ture book, TALA LEARNS TO SIVA (Scholas­tic, 2024) is the sweet­est sto­ry of a child’s desire to dance the tra­di­tion­al Sāmoan taualu­ga just as like grace­ful aunt. Through engag­ing text and beau­ti­ful illus­tra­tions by award-win­ning illus­tra­tor Dung Ho, young read­ers learn, like Tala, that they can do any­thing with prac­tice and patience.

We are thrilled to talk sto­ry with Kealani today.

Alo­ha mai, Kealani! For those read­ers who haven’t met you yet, could you please tell us a lit­tle about yourself? 

Alo­ha! I’m Kealani Netane. I am the author of TALA LEARNS TO SIVA, pub­lished by Scholas­tic. I am Hawai­ian and Samoan. My dad is from ʻUpolu, Sāmoa, and my mom is from Waialua, Oʻahu and Hon­okaʻa, Hawaiʻi. I cur­rent­ly stay home with my three kids though I pre­vi­ous­ly worked in education.

My biggest sup­port­er is my hus­band, Xavier. He is my first cri­tique part­ner and my last before I send a man­u­script to my agent. He’s not a read­er or a writer, but he is Samoan/Tongan so his cul­tur­al per­spec­tive is real­ly helpful.We live in Kapolei, Hawaiʻi.

Where did you grow up? What high school did you grad from?

I was raised in Kailua, Oʻahu until my tween years when we moved to Kapolei. I grad­u­at­ed from Kame­hame­ha-Kapāla­ma in 2008.

Cover-Tala-Learns-to-Siva
Illus­tra­tion @ Dung Ho from Tala Learns to Siva by Kealani Natane (Scholas­tic, 2024)

Con­grat­u­la­tions on your debut pic­ture book! There are not a lot of books for kids by Native Hawai­ian and Pacif­ic Islander writ­ers. Why do you think that is? What do you think we can do the change that?

Thank you! My grand­ma was a great sto­ry­teller. We would holo­ho­lo around the island and she’d tell fan­tas­tic sto­ries about every area, but she was rarely inter­est­ed in writ­ing those sto­ries down. For most of our culture’s exis­tence, there wasn’t a need for books because we passed things down oral­ly. As our world changed, books became more impor­tant. Now there is a need for children’s books by Pacif­ic Islander writ­ers. There are many efforts by local orga­ni­za­tions to cre­ate books for our chil­dren, and there is a small but grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty of Pacif­ic Islanders in U.S. tra­di­tion­al pub­lish­ing. Even with all the cur­rent work being done, there is room for much more.

The CCBC found that only .002% of the books pub­lished in 2021 that they received were by Pacif­ic Islanders (Link). That num­ber doesn’t include the books pub­lished local­ly, only nation­al­ly. My biggest goal for my writ­ing and my social media is for our chil­dren to have acces­si­ble books that mir­ror their life. Dr. Rudine Sims Bish­op stat­ed, “When chil­dren can­not find them­selves in the books they read…they learn a pow­er­ful les­son about how they are deval­ued in the soci­ety of which they are a part” (Link). In order for there to be more books by, about, and for Pacif­ic Islander chil­dren, there needs to be more Pacif­ic Islanders in every sec­tor of the pub­lish­ing world. We should all be help­ing to lift and build oth­ers up to ensure that our chil­dren have access to our stories.

I’m real­ly excit­ed about the grow­ing num­ber of Māori and Pasi­fi­ka authors in Aotearoa. The work they are doing there is tru­ly inspir­ing. I’m hop­ing there will be more upcom­ing Pacif­ic Islander authors in the U.S., espe­cial­ly those of Microne­sian and Melane­sian descent. Many peo­ple have reached out to me ask­ing specif­i­cal­ly for books from those com­mu­ni­ties. We def­i­nite­ly need more books for all of Oceania.

We agree! So what inspired you to choose Sāmoan dance for your debut novel?

I am a dancer. I grew up danc­ing hula, but I always loved watch­ing old­er girls dance the taualu­ga. I thought they were the most beau­ti­ful and grace­ful dancers. As I grew old­er, I learned how to dance the Samoan siva and slow­ly came to under­stand the mean­ing behind the dance. In some ways, this pic­ture book is a reflec­tion of my own life. And in oth­er ways, it’s reflec­tive of how I want to pass on this tra­di­tion­al knowl­edge to my own children.

Illus­tra­tion @ Dung Ho from Tala Learns to Siva by Kealani Natane (Scholas­tic, 2024)

What beliefs are your work challenging?

TALA LEARNS TO SIVA is chal­leng­ing the belief some peo­ple that Poly­ne­sian dances are pure­ly for their enter­tain­ment. I do want to push back on the tourist-cen­tric ideas peo­ple have about our islands and cul­tures. I want our chil­dren to see that their cul­ture is for them first.

You also run a pop­u­lar book­sta­gram. When did you start Lit­tle Pasi­fi­ka Read­ers and why? What are your goals? What inspires you to write your posts and articles?

I start­ed my book­sta­gram, Lit­tle Pasi­fi­ka Read­ers, in ear­ly 2021. When I start­ed writ­ing in 2020, I col­lect­ed resources on Pacif­ic Islander children’s lit­er­a­ture. It was dif­fi­cult to find books, and I imag­ined oth­ers also had a hard time, so I cre­at­ed an avenue to share those resources. I was already fol­low­ing a few oth­er Pasi­fi­ka book­sta­grams and found a com­mu­ni­ty with them when I cre­at­ed my own.

My pre­vail­ing require­ment for post­ing a book is that the book has to be writ­ten or illus­trat­ed by a Pacif­ic Islander. There are many books about us, but not as many books by us. My next require­ment is that the book has to be acces­si­ble, mean­ing the book either needs to be avail­able at pub­lic libraries or there needs to be a web­site where peo­ple can eas­i­ly pur­chase the book.

What are your hopes and dreams for the year and beyond in terms of your social media/writing career and what you would like to see pub­lished in the future?

I have so many book and career ideas that I don’t have the time to do all of them, so I have to pick and choose which projects I want to take on. My book­sta­gram account is some­thing fun that I do on the side, and my focus with that is to con­tin­ue to share resources for peo­ple to find Pacif­ic Islander authored children’s books. I don’t keep up with it as much as I’d like because my focus is more on Pacif­ic Islanders in Pub­lish­ing and the work I do with Keala Kendall and Manuia Hen­rich. We are work­ing on cre­at­ing devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for Pacif­ic Islander writ­ers and con­tin­u­ing to share new book releases.

For my writ­ing, I hope to fin­ish the edits of a pic­ture book I’m work­ing on, and then I hope to keep work­ing on my mid­dle grade and young adult projects. I don’t know if I’ll fin­ish those projects this year, but hope­ful­ly they will be ready for sub­mis­sion in the next cou­ple of years. I also have oth­er pic­ture book ideas lin­ger­ing on my com­put­er that I’m unsure about, but I hope to find ways for them to work.

As for projects out­side of my own, I’d love to see more Pacif­ic Islander authored books in all gen­res, espe­cial­ly adult romance and con­tem­po­rary mid­dle grade and young adult.

Illus­tra­tion @ Dung Ho from Tala Learns to Siva by Kealani Natane (Scholas­tic, 2024)

Can you share a bit about what youʻre work­ing on next?

I have anoth­er pic­ture book project that I’m look­ing for­ward to announc­ing soon. I am also work­ing on a mid­dle grade nov­el and a young adult nov­el. Both of those projects are still in the ear­ly phas­es, so it’ll be many years before they will be ready for publication.

What do you enjoy most about writ­ing, espe­cial­ly for kids? What are some of your great­est challenges?

What I love most about writ­ing for kids is that kids are very glued into the specifics. When writ­ing, I have to look at things from the mind of a child and chil­dren notice every­thing so I have to notice every­thing. Chil­dren are fas­ci­nat­ed by the things adults often take for grant­ed, so writ­ing children’s books helps me slow down and appre­ci­ate life a bit more.

The great­est chal­lenge when writ­ing pic­ture books is being able to tell an entire sto­ry arc in very lit­tle words. We also have to leave space for the illus­tra­tor to tell their sto­ry. So it’s a bal­anc­ing act.

What kinds of books do you enjoy read­ing? Any favorites?

I love all kinds of books. I read across age groups and gen­res. There are a bunch of books I’ve recent­ly read and enjoyed. In the pic­ture book cat­e­go­ry, I loved Find­ing Papa by Angela Pham Krans and We Who Pro­duce Pearls: An Anthem for Asian Amer­i­ca by Joan­na Ho. I real­ly enjoyed the mid­dle grade nov­el, Mani Semi­l­la Finds Her Quet­zal Voice by Anna Lapera. I felt like a proud aun­ty read­ing Mani’s fem­i­nism jour­ney. My favorite young adult book so far this year is Drag­on­fruit by Maki­ia Luci­er. The sto­ry is so heart­warm­ing and adventurous.

In the adult cat­e­go­ry, I love read­ing romance and genre fic­tion. My favorite romance authors right now are Kennedy Ryan and Tia Williams. My favorite genre fic­tion book is Evil Eye by Etaf Rum.

I also love non-fic­tion books, espe­cial­ly books focused on Indige­nous knowl­edge like Braid­ing Sweet­grass by Robin Wall Kim­mer­er and social jus­tice like Angela Davis’ Free­dom is a Con­stant Strug­gle. I’ve been get­ting into more his­tor­i­cal books, and I learned so much from Alo­ha, Betrayed by Noe­noe Sil­va and The Hun­dred Year Walk: An Armen­ian Odyssey by Dawn Anahid Mac­K­een. I’ve also been slow­ly read­ing more poet­ry books, and my favorite right now is ‘Āina Hānau/Birth Land by Brandy Nālani McDougall. I tru­ly feel seen by her poems.

As you can prob­a­bly tell, I love read­ing, and I try to read as much as I can although I don’t near­ly have enough time to do so. I do keep a run­ning list on my phone of books I want to read.

What advice would you give an aspir­ing author/blogger?

My advice for aspir­ing writ­ers is to observe, learn, write, edit, seek feed­back, and edit more. Observe your­self. Observe those around you. Learn from our chants, songs, leg­ends. Learn from your own fam­i­ly his­to­ry. Learn from what has already been writ­ten. Learn from oth­er writ­ers. Then, write. There’s only so much we can do in our heads. As the ʻōle­lo noʻeau tells us, ma ka hana ka ʻike. We learn best when we actu­al­ly write. Next, find a writ­ing com­mu­ni­ty. They will help with feed­back. And edit, edit, edit. Once every­thing is ready, either self-pub­lish or query agents/publishers. Also, you don’t have to write some­thing cul­tur­al. Write what­ev­er you want.

Are you active on social media? How can read­ers find out more about you and your work?

My web­site is kealaninetane.com. I also write the blog posts for Pacif­ic Islanders in Pub­lish­ing. Our blog posts are focused on show­cas­ing the lat­est pub­lished books by Pacif­ic Islanders and help­ing Pacif­ic Islanders nav­i­gate the pub­lish­ing industry. 

Maha­lo nui, Kealani, for shar­ing your man­aʻo with us and for the good work you’re going to encour­age more Pacif­ic Islander cre­ators. We look for­ward to see­ing more from you! To learn more about Kealani Netane, please vis­it her web­site, Kealani Netane.com, her blog posts at Pacif­ic Islanders in Pub­lish­ing, and her book­sta­gram, Lit­tle Pasi­fi­ka Read­ers.

Images cour­tesy of Kealani Netane.