MICHEL MARTIN, BYLINE: What is Hawaii without Hawaiians? That's the question our next guest tried to answer in her new book. Every year, millions of tourists vacation on the Hawaiian Islands. Billionaires, such as Oprah, Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg, own large estates there. Meanwhile, the price of land has gotten so high that few farms can afford to grow crops for local consumption, and lifelong residents are leaving or living precarious lives in overcrowded or substandard conditions. Sara Kehaulani Goo knows the story of land loss in Hawaii all too well. She's a journalist - a former colleague of ours, in fact - and the author of "Kuleana: A Story Of Family, Land, And Legacy In Old Hawai'i." Sara, thanks so much for joining us.
SARA KEHAULANI GOO: Thank you for having me, Michel.
MARTIN: You know, I have to say, I knew that you had roots in Hawaii. And I guess I have to say I pictured, like, a grandma house with, like, doily - lace doilies or something. You know what I mean? But in your case, this is land that was passed down for generations from Native royalty. So tell us about it.
GOO: Yeah. It - actually, this land in my family goes back to the kingdom of Hawaii, if you can believe it. It was given to my ancestor more than 175 years ago from King Kamehameha III. And this land is - it's tropical rainforest, jungle. It's in a very remote part of Hawaii.
MARTIN: Well, you tell this amazing story of, like, the first time you went there, you were taken there by your dad. You go on this three-hour journey, and then you get out, and then you still have to hike. But then when you get there, it's magical.
GOO: It was magical. And when we got there, I was invited into this family secret, as well. It wasn't just the land, but we also hiked to what I learned was a Native Hawaiian ancient temple. It's about the size of a Costco, and it was hidden in the jungle by my family.
MARTIN: Why was it a secret?
GOO: After the missionaries came to Hawaii, you know, they converted a lot of the leaders in the royal family of the royal court - the Hawaiians - and they gave up a lot of their religious practices. And so that included the temples, which were destroyed. This temple, in particular, was kept hidden. I think a reason that they didn't talk about it was they wanted to preserve it.
MARTIN: Amazing. So what does "Kuleana" mean? - the title of your book. What does it mean?
GOO: Yeah. It means responsibility, and that's the basic definition. But a lot of Hawaiian words have multiple definitions, depending on their context. And the word, I think, is the perfect title for this book because it also explains the journey that I go on to really embrace it and understand it in a new context.
MARTIN: So to that end, in 2019, you get an email from your dad letting you know that the - your family's - the property taxes on the land were scheduled to go up by 500%, and that sets off something of a crisis. So say more about that.
GOO: Right. We knew that we needed to act. Well, I think that we knew that this kind of thing might happen. And it forced us to decide, what is our relationship to it now that we are not living - and we don't plan to live on this. It's not real estate to us, but it was really a question about our relationship to it.
MARTIN: You write that it's - that this whole experience and dealing with this tells a bigger story. So what is that story?
GOO: Today a majority of Native Hawaiians live outside of Hawaii. But this has been a slow churn, and it, you know, happened with the sugarcane plantations. It happened with the government overthrow. It happened with military land takeover, federal government land takeover. And it's happening now with the world's billionaires, who are snapping up a lot of acreage.
MARTIN: Is that partly why the property taxes have gone up - are escalating so rapidly, because the value of the land is escalating so rapidly because people are buying it up?
GOO: Right. I mean, Hawaii's a place where there's a finite amount of land.
MARTIN: Well, so a lot of people are familiar with that terrible fire in Maui in the historic town of Lahaina, but what I understand from your book is that this is actually a bigger issue. It's not just a - like, a specific tragic occurrence.
GOO: It is. The fire exacerbated that problem, but it has long existed. And so when you have a system where you once had a Hawaiian island chain that was totally able to grow its own food and support its people, to now it's importing 90% of its food, and, you know, 9 million people are visiting a year, and, you know, all these homes are sitting empty for visitors and not enough housing for local people, something's really broken.
MARTIN: So you have a Chinese name - Goo - but - you know what I mean? You're a polyglot. You're mixed.
GOO: Yeah.
MARTIN: You're a mix. And so the reason I raise that - because you raise that. But also people look at that and they think, well, then, who has the claim here? Like, why would people have any more claim since people - a lot of people came to Hawaii from everywhere. So...
GOO: Right.
MARTIN: How do you think about that?
GOO: I didn't grow up in Hawaii. I'm very clear about that. I grew up in Southern California, and I've spent the last 20 years living in Washington, D.C. And when this crisis of our land came up, that was, you know, the first thing that felt, you know, uncomfortable to ask is, you know, what does this land mean to me when I'm raising my children so far away? How will they feel? And so I realized that it starts with me, and I don't know how else to explain it, except that I've always felt Hawaii is a part of me and called me and had been calling me back.
MARTIN: What would you say to people who, you know, if they read your book and they think, huh, you know, I'm part of the problem? But it's a place of dreams.
GOO: Oh...
MARTIN: I mean, it's the place of dreams. It's part of the United States. What - how do you want people to think about it?
GOO: Oh. Well, first of all, I want people to read my book if they're visiting Hawaii. That's one of the reasons I wrote it. I think the unique thing about Hawaii is its beautiful environment, its beautiful culture. It's a fragile ecosystem. So educate yourself a little bit about that before you go. And go there with an open mind and go there knowing that it's going to be a very unique experience. You're not going there to, you know, just be served. You're going there to also understand.
MARTIN: Sara Kehaulani Goo is the author of "Kuleana: A Story Of Family, Land, And Legacy In Old Hawai'i." Sara, thank you so much for talking with us.
GOO: Thank you, Michel.
(SOUNDBITE OF HAWAII CALLS ORCHESTRA & CHORUS' "CHANT OF THE ISLANDS (FEAT AL KEALOHA PERRY)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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