Many people first encounter Hawai‘i through the imagination—a postcard picture of hula girls, lu‘aus, and plenty of sun, surf, and sea. While Hawai‘i is indeed beautiful, Native Hawaiians struggle with the problems brought about by colonialism, military occupation, tourism, food insecurity, high costs of living, and climate change. In this brilliant reinvention of the travel guide, artists, activists, and scholars redirect readers from the fantasy of Hawai‘i as a tropical paradise and tourist destination toward a multilayered and holistic engagement with Hawai‘i’s culture and complex history. The essays, stories, artworks, maps, and tour itineraries in Detours create decolonial narratives in ways that will forever change how readers think about and move throughout Hawai‘i.
Praise
“This brilliant and beautiful collection—which features interviews, personal essays, collaborative pieces with community elders, family histories, and more—is a rich ethical project that offers so much for so many. Mahalo!” – J. Kehaulani Kauanui, author of Paradoxes of Hawaiian Sovereignty: Land, Sex, and the Colonial Politics of State Nationalism
“[Detours] seeks to flip travel writing’s static script, telling tourists that they are not entitled to all things Hawaiian because the Hawai‘i of their imagination is obliterating the Hawai‘i of Kanaka Maoli. . . . [Aikau and Gonzalez are] hoping to reach those who intend to become better guests, even if they’re in the minority.” – Bani Amor, Fodor’s Travel
“The stories, art and ideas collected in Detours are a guide to the contributors’ connections to Hawaii. As a collective, the stories demonstrate how readers can learn about Hawaii beyond the veneer of tourism, and approach the island-state in a way that honors and reduces harm to the local cultures and communities.” – Crystal Paul, Seattle Times
“This important book challenges readers to think critically about the violence of colonialism that is expressed through tourism. . . . Detours is valuable not only to those studying Hawai?i, but more broadly to scholars of indigenous studies and anyone interested in the colonial legacies of tourism. Highly recommended. All levels.” – L. Kessler, Choice
“If you know a particularly intuitive traveler, someone who wants to find the hidden histories of a place, the guidebook Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawai‘i . . . will give them perfect examples of ways to reapproach tourism and travel—in other words, to decolonize their experience.”
– Kit Dillon, Wirecutter
“By collecting the stories of Kanaka, this guide educates its readers with rich, wise primary sources. It effectively amplifies the voices of those most knowledgeable and does not shy away from harsh facts and truths that are often glossed over. . . . I highly recommend this guide to everyone who has or plans to have contact with Hawai’i. What you learn from reading should impact the way you approach your visit and bring to light new considerations to uphold a pono (just, fitting) experience.” – Erica Cheung, International Examiner
“Detours is more than a book. In fact, it may only incidentally be a book. Rather, this collection feels like an extension of Kanaka innovation that reinvents intergenerational knowledge transmission and documentation.” – Natchee Blu Barnd, American Indian Culture and Research Journal
“After reading this book, you cannot journey to Hawai’i without a very different way of knowing this place and its people…. Detours sets an important milestone and has made an invaluable contribution to decolonizing tourism.” – Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, Journal of Sustainable Tourism
“A fascinating collection, an attempt to use the framework of the travel industry to destabilize the travel industry . . . scraping at the fantasy version of this place to find what’s been buried.” – Chris Colin, Afar
“As a text that brings together so many voices, Detours is indispensable to scholars in Indigenous studies and Pacific studies, as well as activists and organizers at the intersections of decolonization and demilitarization…. Detours is a critical disruption to business as usual.” – Gregory Pomaikai Gushiken, Native American and Indigenous Studies
“With its eclectic collection of stories and histories, Detours reroutes the tourist gaze and offers travelers, scholars, and island residents richly diverse perspectives on Hawai’i.” – Kirsten Møllegaard, Journal of American Culture
“With numerous and diverse kanaka maoli (Native Hawaiian) contributors, this edited volume, in the form of a travel guide, resists the romantic and sanitized narratives associated with the Hawaiian Islands. Instead, Detours centers kanaka voices and perspectives, asking readers to reflect on the complex legacies of U.S. imperialism, extraction, and consumption, including land loss and climate change.” – Kasey Keeler, Edge Effects
Introduction
by Hōkūlani K. Aikau and Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez
Chapter Pages 1-13
Media & Interviews
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“Decolonizing Travel in Hawai‘i”
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A Decolonial Guide to Hawai‘i
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“Scholars Work on Anti-Colonial Travel Guidebook to Hawaii”
Presentations & Keynotes
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“Curating Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawaiʻi” — Noted Scholars Speaker Series
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“Detours, Genre, and Spatial Justice” with Hōkūlani K. Aikau