Kuleana: A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawai‘i

The Hawaiian word for responsibility—particularly as it pertains to caring for the land—lends this stirring debut memoir from former Axios editor-in-chief Goo its title. Goo’s family kept a 90-something-acre piece of Maui, a small chunk of a much larger gift from King Kahmeamea III, under their ownership for nearly 200 years. In 2019, however, Goo’s father revealed in an email that property taxes had jumped 500%, and he didn’t know how to pay. Suddenly, like so many other Native Hawaiians, Goo’s family had to compete with wealthy investors from the mainland. Goo puts her journalism background to good use while researching the land’s history, her account of which doubles as a timeline of Hawaii’s shift away from traditions of shared ownership. Meanwhile, she navigates thorny intergenerational dynamics within her family, as various factions fight to choose the best path forward. Along the way, Goo interviews Hawaiian locals who share a passion for land stewardship and keeping Hawaiian culture alive, including a professor of Hawaiian studies who encourages her to pray to her ancestors. Ending on a note of fragile hope, Goo’s heartrending saga serves as an urgent reminder that Indigenous culture is alive and braided with modern life, and that all Americans have a role in its survival. Agent: Howard Yoon, WME. (June)