A Biography of Native Hawaiian Leader and Scholar, Haunani-Kay Trask (1949 - 2021)

FAIN: RZ-286888-22

University of Hawaii (Honolulu, HI 96822-2216)
J. Noelani Goodyear-Kaopua (Project Director: November 2021 to present)

Preparation of a coauthored book on the life and work of Haunani-Kay Trask (1949-2021), Native Hawaiian scholar, educator, poet, and community leader. (24 months) 

An intellectual and political biography of Dr. Haunani-Kay Trask. A poet, political scientist, activist, and international advocate for human rights, Trask is arguably the most important Native Hawaiian scholar of the 20th century. Her life and works contributed to the global rise of Indigenous subjectivity, and she profoundly shaped Hawaiian movements for justice from the 1970s onward. Written for broad audiences, the book will shed light on ways Native Hawaiians have navigated and organized against inequalities resulting from forced political incorporation into the US in 1898. Charting Trask’s roots and routes, the project illuminates connections between major social movements that transformed Hawaiian, Pacific, and American life in the late 20th century and early 21st centuries, including the ways such movements changed universities. The project engages Trask’s work to consider issues of gender justice, Indigenous-settler relations, and ways public universities shape democratic life