HULI

Wayne Kaumualii Westlake (b. 1947, Lahaina, Maui, Hawai‘i;
d. 1984, Hilo, Hawai‘i, United States)
"HULI" 1979
Hand stamp rubber type with hanko
Courtesy of Mei-Li Siy and Richard Hamasaki

In ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i (Hawaiian language), the word “huli” evokes many layered and contextually dependent meanings. Composer Mary Kawena Pukui and linguist Samuel H. Elbert recorded the following definitions in their co-authored Hawaiian Dictionary, “To turn, reverse; to curl over, as a breaker; to change, as an opinion or manner of living. To look for, search, explore, seek, study. Section, as of a town, place, or house. Taro top, as used for planting.”

In the 1970s, “HULI” was a rallying call across Ka Pae‘āina o Hawai‘i (the Hawaiian archipelago)—written with conviction, painted on cardboard signs and bed sheet banners, called out during sit-ins, pickets, marches, and broadcasts. Amidst this reawakening of Native Hawaiian culture, demands for increased self-determination and action against the U.S. Empire in the Pacific were commonplace.

In 1979, Kanaka ‘Ōiwi (Native Hawaiian) poet, translator, journalist, and educator Wayne Kaumualii Westlake (1947–1984) channeled the energies of the moment in an unassuming print, four letters hand stamped in black ink on paper—HULI. Westlake’s simple and unsettling gesture, presenting the word flipped and reversed, literalizes its transformational potential, allowing its meaning to be sensed, if not necessarily understood, by all readers. Over four decades later, HULI continues to encapsulate longstanding and ongoing grassroots efforts for systemic change.

HULI appears in its current form courtesy of Westlake’s former companion Mei-Li M. Siy and his friend and collaborator Richard “red flea” Hamasaki, co-editors of Westlake: Poems by Wayne Kaumualii Westlake (1947–1984), first published in 2009 by the University of Hawai‘i Press.

By Drew Kahu‘āina Broderick and Josh Tengan (based in Honolulu, O‘ahu, United States)