Issue 12: Storytelling in Hawai'i with Naka Nathaniel
"Community conscious" journalism allows everyone to be a part of the narrative.
Aloha everyone!
I’m channeling the beautiful sea, gurgling volcanoes and inclusivity of the Big Island of Hawai’i. Please welcome Naka, one of the most engaging and kindest people I know. Naka is a native Hawai’ian, dedicated journalist, passionate storyteller, devoted husband and father, and a seriously good home cook. He makes a really good bouillabaise and is a culinary purist to match my own heart. You’d never guess all that Naka has seen and experienced (detained for his work in Iran, Sudan, Gaza and China!), given the ease and joie de vivre with which Naka lives daily. Many mahalos to Naka for sharing his unique upbringing with us and bringing stories to life. Happy reading!
Flavor of the Week: KP Q&A with Naka Nathaniel
Naka Nathaniel returned home to Hawai’i in 2022. He is a journalism professor at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and editor-at-large for the Honolulu Civil Beat — after caring for his son as the primary parent for 13 years. Before this life chapter, Naka helped launch NYTimes.com in 1996 and led a multimedia team to develop new storytelling formats for the newspaper. He captured the important and widely distributed video footage of the second plane hitting the South Tower on 9/11. While based in Paris for The New York Times, Naka covered the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and worked in over 60 countries to cover geopolitical conflicts and myriad social issues including human trafficking and climate change. Now Naka lives in Waimea on the Big Island with his wife Meredith and son Kai — and can be found sea paddling and enjoying the outdoors. Follow Naka on IG @naka.nathaniel.
Introduce yourself more personally in 2-3 sentences.
Hi. I have been doing two things lately. I'm a professor at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and editor at large for Honolulu Civil Beat, which is an investigative news outlet here in Hawaii.
Where are you from?
I am living in Hawai’i. This is where my family has been from forever. And I am particularly loving getting the chance to share with my family the special place that Hawai’i is.
No, where are you REALLY from? (Haha!)
Where am I really from? This is a great, great question. It's something that we've been working through with a lot of folks. You know, there's always the place that you're born, there's the place where you're going to die in which many people are saying that that's going to be the place where you're from; or there's the place that you put in the most time, effort and energy and improve and make better.
I've been fortunate to live in so many different places where I can say that I'm from. I was born in the Marshall Islands, and oftentimes I would say I was from there. I was in Texas for a number of years — that's where I went to school. Worked and met my wife in New York and we later lived in Paris. Our son was born in Los Angeles, and we spent the better part of a dozen years in Atlanta. And so we're from all of those places. I love the notion that did exist once upon a time of being “a citizen of the world." Things have gotten more complex because they've gotten more honest, you know. When you ask a complicated question, you get complicated answers!
Now what I always tell people is I’m from Hawai’i, I'm from Waimea.
What’s your sign?
Aries.
How would you describe yourself in five words?
Thalassaphile. Bibliophile. Aesthete. Paddler. Writer.
What’s your connection to Komerican culture?
You! You're my connection! I can see it completely, and through your lens, right?
And of course, what are your favorite Korean foods?
Seollangtang was one of my first introductions to Korean food. The fortunate thing is that there's a lot of Korean food that has worked its way into everyday Hawai’ian cuisine. So I grew up eating Korean fried chicken and bibimbap. We had many of the traditional dishes while living in New York for so many years and ending up on 32nd Street, working our way through menus. I would love to say that I am fairly versed in being able to cook some Korean foods, but that's definitely not the case. The last time I tried to make a seafood pancake, it was just an absolute disaster.
What was your childhood like and what has it taught you?
I grew up on a little military base in the middle of the Pacific called Kwajalein. My dad moved there from Hawai’i to work on a lot of the construction projects that were going on out there. It's a place where a lot of the American nuclear missile testing was done. It's not that far from Bikini and it was a colony of rocket scientists. The mission there was to develop the weaponry to blow up the world. Oppenheimer has come out to kind of help people confront some of the questions that come, like “Should we do this?” And to consider philosophical implications — not just the physical implications of building atomic weapons. During the Cold War, living on this island was not only being on the frontlines, but it was beyond the front lines of what was going to happen, the future and the fate of the world.
It was also an idyllic place to grow up as long as you were a child and were completely oblivious to the mission of the place and what the consequences were of the work that the adults were doing. It was perfectly safe, a wonderful and beautiful place to learn to spend time in the ocean, a small community. And I had a great education on top of it. We were part of the Department of Defense schools – one thing I kind of wish for the American education system, to have DOD schools implemented across the U.S.
Can you share something exciting that you’re working on now?
We just finished this phenomenal project here in Waimea where I brought four storytellers to the stage. Most of us told true stories, modeled after The Moth, as I had done The Moth in Honolulu back in October on the Main Stage. So we wanted to bring a lot of that spirit of storytelling and sharing and connecting people. We just finished up that project and we're in the afterglow of it! We're starting to release the videos that we shot that night and I'm excited that we’re able to share this with a wider audience.
There's a Hawaiian concept called kuleana, which is responsibility. To fill the kuleana – this is a phrase we use quite a lot around here – you have this kuleana, this responsibility to care for a given situation. And another word that follows this is called kulana, which is the role, the ability to fulfill that responsibility. And so that's the part that I understand – that my role as a journalist is to fulfill this responsibility of telling stories.
What do people underestimate about you?
Hopefully not much. The more that this question is asked, the more there's a greater understanding of prejudicial behavior, estimation and assumptions.
Share your proudest moment in the past year.
It's been quite a past year. I am very proud of my mother. My dad died at the end of last year, and I'm very proud of the way that she handled the situation. She was very diligent because she was mission driven. She fell back very, very heavily on her faith and the basis of her and my dad's relationship. And that was one of the things that at the very end was such a place of comfort for her. They had been married for 53 years and raised five kids.
I was just so proud of the way she showed both a bit of acceptance and a bit of fighting for what she wanted to have happen. One of the things I remember most distinctly is her slowly signing the hospice care paperwork, because she wanted my sister who was on a flight coming from Hawai’i to be able to be there in my dad's expected last moments. She would climb into the hospital bed and lay with my dad almost every single night. I appreciate that she was fighting for so much at the very end, not only for my dad, but she was fighting for the entire family, but particularly for herself.
What was your hardest moment in the past year?
Dealing with the passing of my dad. We come from a particularly large family and it's a big team. There’s a lot of interests involved and a lot of history and trying to manage that while trying to acknowledge the beauty of the life that my dad had lived. Trying to pull all these different pieces together and keeping things harmonious. And that goes back to my mom, really doing such beautiful work in keeping everybody informed and together and focused. I’m so grateful to her and the rest of my family for the way that everything was handled.
We’ve all been hurt in some form or fashion. What are you healing from?
I've been incredibly fortunate. We used to joke that I had a warped sense of perspective because of my work going into places – where if The New York Times shows up and is doing a story, it's often because things are really, really, really terrible and we’re there to shine a light on the depravities.
Knowing these things exist and having seen a lot firsthand in the world, it really does put me into another place - where playing witness to so much brings a recognition, a kind of preparing yourself, to be able to have healthy relationships after being in those environments.
How do you love yourself?
Spending time with my family. And in the water paddling.
How do you love others?
Spending time together.
What five things can you not live without?
Meredith. Kai. Water. Dirt. The fifth one is always the hardest one because that's the one where you have to eliminate everything else. And I can't say something flippant like The Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle. Books.
What’s your favorite dance song?
Whatever the first song is played by the DJ when the dance floor opens up!
What’s your favorite kind of pie?
So in the book Harold and the Purple Crayon, there were nine kinds of pie. And we did this ridiculous thing with Kai, where we made all nine different kinds of pie. If I remember correctly, not only did we have the classic fruit pies, like apple, but of course we had to make it with pear, cherry, and blueberry. We did a lemon meringue pie, which is Meredith's favorite. We did a mincemeat pie and a pecan pie. We of course, made a pumpkin pie, which is Kai's grandfather’s, Meredith’s dad's favorite kind of pie. And we made sure that we left space for custard pie, which is my dad's favorite kind of pie. So among those nine different kinds of pie, I really do like a good slice of pecan pie.
H Mart Happiness: What’s your favorite product and why?
“I like Hi-Chew because of its chewiness and softness. And I love the many flavors!” - Hope T.
What’s your favorite H Mart product? Message us with your favorite in 1-2 sentences and we’ll feature it with a photo right here on the webzine!
Crispy Crust: A Hint of Han - Subversive poetry that soothes
Unfriendly things I've heard friends say "I don't get why guys think she is so pretty. She's just diverse." "My kid didn't get into preschool... because there was a cool black family who applied." "That coach is obsessed with diversity." "I don't mean to be offensive, but diversity is kind of unfair." Hmm, no offense taken?
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Love, Sarah
Korean School: The First Wave of Korean Immigrants in Hawai’i
Fun facts, idioms, translations and history
The Boston University Korean Diaspora Project offers this very digestable history of Korean immigration to the United States, which is so relevant to this issue. What’s considered the first true wave of Korean immigrants to the U.S. came to Hawai’i in 1903, to work on pineapple and sugar plantations. Presbyterian missionary and U.S. diplomat Horace Allen recruited Koreans to become cheap laborers in the U.S., as Chinese laborers were outlawed by The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. How interesting that so long ago — there was such a distinction made between Chinese and Korean heritage — and today the Asian-American designation seems to perpetuate a monolithic lack of differences between distinct cultures.
Sweet & Salty: A list of the tastiest treats satisfying all the senses
Check out Hallyu! The Korean Wave, the latest exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston from March 24-July 28, 2024. It’s sure to entertain and delight —and most definitely celebrate the influence of Korean culture and media all over the world, but particularly in the U.S. Komericans have always carried the “remarkable resilience and innovation” that is heralded in this exhibit — for generations from our tiny powerhouse of a country. It’s nice to see the world is catching on!
We recently learned about Komerican artist in Hawai’i Lauren Hana Chai from a friend, and immediately fell in love with the imagery and energy of her works. Chai’s art encapsulates her self-described mode of “painting the clash of East and West” — except we don’t see any clashes or hyphens at all. Just pure power, beauty and truth!
I’m living in and loving these Levi’s Baggy Dad Women’s Jeans. Wanted to share them widely as I get stopped by people with questions about them. Think 1990s fashion meets comfy hospital scrubs meets sustainable textile - these are 100% cotton and recyclable! Hop on the “old is new again” trend of non-stretch blue jeans and help keep jeans out of the landfills, too.