Kuleana

A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawai'i

De: Sara Kehaulani Goo

Narrado por: Sara Kehaulani Goo

Read by the author and set in one of the world’s most beautiful landscapes, Kuleana is the story of an award-winning journalist’s effort to hold on to her family’s ancestral Hawaiian lands—and find herself along the way.

“A powerful story of land, belonging, loss, and survival that challenges us all to think about what we are responsible for.” —Rebecca Nagle, bestselling author of By the Fire We Carry

From an early age, Sara Kehaulani Goo was enchanted by her family’s land in Hawai‘i. The vast area on the rugged shores of Maui’s east side—given by King Kamehameha III in 1848—extends from mountain to sea, encompassing ninety acres of lush, undeveloped rainforest jungle along the rocky coastline and a massive sixteenth-century temple with a mysterious past.

When a property tax bill arrives with a 500 percent increase, Sara and her family members are forced to make a decision about the property: fight to keep the land or sell to the next offshore millionaire. When Sara returns to Maui from the mainland, she reconnects with her great-uncle Take and uncovers the story of how much land her family has already lost over generations, centuries-old artifacts from the temple, and the insidious displacement of Native Hawaiians by systemic forces.

Part journalistic offering and part memoir, Kuleana interrogates deeper questions of identity, legacy, and what we owe to those who come before and after us. Sara’s breathtaking story of unexpected homecomings, familial hardship, and fierce devotion to ancestry creates a refreshingly new narrative about Hawai‘i, its native people, and their struggle to hold on to their land and culture today.

A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.

©2025 Sara Goo (P)2025 Macmillan Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"[A] stirring debut memoir.... 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."
—Publishers Weekly

“In her riveting memoir, Kuleana, journalist Sara Kehaulani Goo tells us more about the difficult past of one of the most beautiful places on earth than any history book can conjure. In it, a Native Hawaiian family struggles to reclaim the ancestral lands that colonization, tourism, and rampant development threaten to overrun. A veteran reporter, Sara plumbs every aspect of this story, spooling an engrossing narrative that informs as much as it engages. It is at once a chilling and inspirational tale.”—Marie Arana, author of American Chica and LatinoLand

“A sui generis book, Sara Kehaulani Goo’s Kuleana deftly blends memoir and reportage into a revelatory and refreshing exploration of connections—to one's heritage, to one's family, and to one's home.”—Jose Antonio Vargas, author of Dear America

Loved the story

As a part-time resident of Hana, it was so easy to picture this beautiful ‘Heavenly Hana’ with the author’s words. She captured the essence of Hana and the native Hawaiian ways and language very well.

Heartfelt story of family and responsibility

I very much enjoyed this book. I grew up in Hawai’i (Big Island and Maui) and know the land she writes about. My neighbors in Kahana are going through the same struggle as Sara’s family is with the possibility of losing their land. I also love the story of keeping her Hawaiian-ness alive in her own family thousands of miles away from Maui. I lived in Lahaina and am currently fighting the fight with my Hawaiian friends regarding housing and tourism (and disaster tourism with the tourists trespassing the fire zone area). I hope someday very soon my eyes will witness the end of developers and greed taking over the islands and generational lands will be saved from more loss.

Good Hawaiian information

I enjoyed this book and learned a fair amount about Hawaii. The author was raised on the mainland and apparently has 1/8th Hawaiian blood, with her children being 1/16th Hawaiian. Her personal experiences and exposure to Hawaiian culture and especially her efforts to educate her children about it were of interest. Her research into the history of her family’s land around Hana was the highlight.

My reservation is there was too much personal information about the author's life in non-Hawaiian contexts. This is not an autobiography. A good editor could have cut perhaps 1/5 of this book.

The author is a good reporter. After more than 50 years of occasional living on the Wai'anae coast of Oahu, I learned new facts about the resurgence of the Hawaiian language and culture in Hawaii and the mainland, and especially about Hana. I’m glad this book was written.

The author's narration was excellent.