Hawaii Nei: Island Plays (Contemporary Pacific Literature)

Hawai'i Nei brings together three plays by one of Hawai'i's finest playwrights. A compassionate portrait of early nineteenth-century Hawai'i, "The Conversion of Ka'ahumanu" charts the lives of five women during the traumatic, transforming events that followed Western contact. Set in post-World War II Hawai'i, "Emmalehua" tells the story of a young Hawaiian woman struggling to preserve a cherished cultural heritage in a world eager to forget the past and embrace the new American dream. Through history, humor, and a whodunnit plot, the past and present collide in "Ola Na Iwi," which explores the issues surrounding the treatment of indigenous human remains.