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

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.

Sara Kehaulani Goo is a journalist and senior news executive who has led several news organizations including Axios, NPR, and The Washington Post. She is the former editor-in-chief at Axios, where she launched the company’s editorial expansion into national and local newsletters, podcasts and live journalism. Before Axios, she led online audience growth as a managing editor at NPR, overseeing the newsroom’s digital news operation. Goo also served as news director at The Washington Post, where she also served as a business editor and reporter. Originally from Dana Point, California, she graduated from the University of Minnesota’s journalism school. She lives in Washington, D.C.