Sarah Vowell is my hero. I highly recommend all of her books… though I recommend them in audiobook form because I think her voice is awesome, and she is funny… as well as being informative about history and stuff. Her latest book is "Unfamiliar Fishes" which focuses on the time from the 1820s when the first missionaries arrived in Hawaii to the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani and annexation of Hawaii by the USA in 1893. It is enlightening. As a main lander, I had no idea. The history of Hawaii was a blip in my American History class.
She references this song too. Despite all the changes brought to Hawaii since James Cook arrived in 1778, and the sorrow brought upon the Hawaiians for their loss, "in it you'll find Hawaii". … Hawaii lives on, and as on outsider I believe this beautiful melancholy song is evidence.
UA MAU KE EA O KA AINA I KA PONO O HAWAII
(rough transalation: The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness in Hawaii)
If just for a day our king and queen
Would visit all these islands and saw everything
How would they 'bout the changing of our land
Could you just imagine if they were around
And saw highways on their sacred grounds
How would they feel if they 'bout this modern city life
Tears would come from each others eyes as
They would stop to realize
That our people are in great, great danger now
How would they feel
Would their smiles be content
Rather then cry
Cry for the gods, cry for the people
Cry for the lands that were taken away
And in it you'll find Hawaii
Could you just imagine if they came back
And saw traffic lights and railroad tracks
How would they feel about this modern city life
Tears would come from each others eyes as
They would stop to realize
That our land is in great, great danger now
All of the fighting that the king had done
To conquer all these islands
Now there's condominiums
How would he feel if saw Hawaii now
How would he feel
Would his smiles be content
Rather then cry
Cry for the gods, cry for the people
Cry for the lands that were taken away
And in it you'll find Hawaii
UA MAU KE EA O KA AINA I KA PONO O HAWAII
