Description

University of Arizona Press, paperback

Publication Date: June 13, 2023

Publisher Marketing: ‘ina Hnau / Birth Land is a powerful collection of new poems by Kanaka iwi (Native Hawaiian) poet Brandy Nlani McDougall. ‘ina hnau–or the land of one’s birth–signifies identity through intimate and familial connections to place and creates a profound bond between the people in a community. McDougall’s poems flow seamlessly between ‘lelo Hawai’i and English, forming rhythms and patterns that impress on the reader a deep understanding of the land. Tracing flows from the mountains to the ocean, from the sky to the earth, and from ancestor to mother to child, these poems are rooted in the rich ancestral and contemporary literature of Hawaii –moolelo, mookauhau, and mele –honoring Hawaiian ina, culture, language, histories, aesthetics, and futures.

The poems in ina Hnau / Birth Land cycle through sacred and personal narratives while exposing and fighting ongoing American imperialism, settler colonialism, militarism, and social and environmental injustice to protect the ina and its people. The ongoing environmental crisis in Hawaii, inextricably linked to colonialism and tourism, is captured with stark intensity as McDougall writes, Violence is what we settle for / because we’ve been led to believe / green paper can feed us / more than green land. The experiences of birth, motherhood, miscarriage, and the power of Native Hawaiian traditions and self-advocacy in an often dismissive medical system is powerfully narrated by the speaker of the titular poem, written for McDougall’s daughters.

‘ina Hnau reflects on what it means to be from and belong to an ina hnau, as well as what it means to be an ‘aina hanau, as all mothers serve as the first birth lands for their children.