The Queen and I: A Story of Dispossessions and Reconnections in Hawai'i

This transgressive book brilliantly ties personal memories to new political information about Hawaìi's crucial Territorial era. Spurred by questions surrounding intergenerational property disputes in her immediate family, Sydney L. Iaukea delves into Hawaìi's historical archives. There she discovers the central role played by her great-great-grandfather in the politics of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Hawaìi—in particular, Curtis P. Iaukea's trusted position with the Hawaiian Kingdom's last ruling monarch, Queen Lilìuokalani. As Iaukea charts her ancestor's efforts to defend a culture under siege, she reveals astonishing legal and legislative maneuvers and enables us to see how capitalism is infused into cultural relationships. She also finds resonant parallels and connections between her own upbringing in Maui's housing projects, her family's penchant for hiding property, and the Hawaiian peoples' loss of their country and lands.