Between 1866 and 1969, an estimated 8,000 individuals—at least 90 percent of whom were Native Hawaiians—were sent to Molokai’s remote Kalaupapa peninsula because they were believed to have leprosy. Unwilling to accept the loss of their families, homes, and citizenship, these individuals ensured they would be accorded their rightful place in history. They left a powerful testimony of their lives in the form of letters, petitions, music, memoirs, and oral history interviews. Kalaupapa combines more than 200 hours of interviews with archival documents, including over 300 letters and petitions written by the earliest residents translated from Hawaiian. It has long been assumed that those sent to Kalaupapa were unconcerned with the world they were forced to leave behind. The present work shows that residents remained actively interested and involved in life beyond Kalaupapa. They petitioned the Hawaii Legislative Assembly in 1874, seeking justice. They fervently supported Queen Liliuokalani and the Hawaiian Kingdom prior to annexation and contributed to the relief effort in Europe following World War I. In 1997 Kalaupapa residents advocated at the United Nations together with people affected by leprosy from around the world. This book presents at long last the story of Kalaupapa as told by its people.

When Henry Nalaielua was diagnosed with Hansen's disease in 1936 and taken from his home and family, he began a journey of exile that led him to Kalaupapa—the remote settlement with the tragic history on the Hawaiian island of Moloka'i. During its century as a virtual prison, more than 8,000 people were exiled to Kalaupapa, until the introduction of sulfone drugs in the 1940s. Today fewer than 30 patients remain.This is Henry's story—an unforgettable memoir of the boy who grew to build a full and joyous life at Kalaupapa, and still calls it home today. No Footprints in the Sand is one of only a few memoirs ever shared with the public by a Kalaupapa patient. Its intimacy and candor make it, in the words of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet W.S. Merwin, “a rare and precious human document.” Nalaielua's story is an inspiring one; despite exile, physical challenges and the severing of family ties, he has faced life—as an artist, musician and historian—with courage, honesty, hope and humor.

Diagnosed with Hansen's disease (leprosy) at the age of twelve and exiled to the remote settlement of Kalaupapa, Molokai, Makia Malo lost his hands, his feet and his eyesight over the years -- but never the vision or spirit that have made him a celebrated storyteller and poet. In "My Name Is Makia," this inspirational Hawaiian now tells his own story -- of a child of Kalaupapa who grew up to carry his message of hope and love throughout the Islands and around the world.

NOW A LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER | NAMED A BEST/MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK BY: USA Today • BookRiot • BookBub • LibraryReads • OC Register • Never Ending Voyage The highly anticipated sequel to Alan Brennert’s acclaimed book club favorite, and national bestseller, Moloka'i "A novel of illumination and affection." —USA Today Alan Brennert’s beloved novel Moloka'i, currently has over 600,000 copies in print. This companion tale tells the story of Ruth, the daughter that Rachel Kalama—quarantined for most of her life at the isolated leprosy settlement of Kalaupapa—was forced to give up at birth. The book follows young Ruth from her arrival at the Kapi'olani Home for Girls in Honolulu, to her adoption by a Japanese couple who raise her on a strawberry and grape farm in California, her marriage and unjust internment at Manzanar Relocation Camp during World War II—and then, after the war, to the life-altering day when she receives a letter from a woman who says she is Ruth’s birth mother, Rachel. Daughter of Moloka'i expands upon Ruth and Rachel’s 22-year relationship, only hinted at in Moloka'i. It’s a richly emotional tale of two women—different in some ways, similar in others—who never expected to meet, much less come to love, one another. And for Ruth it is a story of discovery, the unfolding of a past she knew nothing about. Told in vivid, evocative prose that conjures up the beauty and history of both Hawaiian and Japanese cultures, it’s the powerful and poignant tale that readers of Moloka'i have been awaiting for fifteen years.

Young Rachel Kalama, growing up in idyllic Honolulu in the 1890s, is part of a big, loving Hawaiian family, and dreams of seeing the far-off lands that her father, a merchant seaman, often visits. But at the age of seven, Rachel and her dreams are shattered by the discovery that she has leprosy. Forcibly removed from her family, she is sent to Kalaupapa, the isolated leper colony on the island of Moloka'i. In her exile she finds a family of friends to replace the family she's lost: a native healer, Haleola, who becomes her adopted "auntie" and makes Rachel aware of the rich culture and mythology of her people; Sister Mary Catherine Voorhies, one of the Franciscan sisters who care for young girls at Kalaupapa; and the beautiful, worldly Leilani, who harbors a surprising secret. At Kalaupapa she also meets the man she will one day marry. True to historical accounts, Moloka'i is the story of an extraordinary human drama, the full scope and pathos of which has never been told before in fiction. But Rachel's life, though shadowed by disease, isolation, and tragedy, is also one of joy, courage, and dignity. This is a story about life, not death; hope, not despair. It is not about the failings of flesh, but the strength of the human spirit.

In Kalaupapa Place Names, John Clark presents a unique history of the leprosy settlement on Moloka‘i, based on his meticulous research of more than three hundred Hawaiian-language newspaper articles. He first assembled an extensive list of familiar and long-forgotten place names associated with the Kalaupapa peninsula and then searched for them in the online repository of Hawaiian-language newspapers. With translation assistance by Iāsona Ellinwood and Keao NeSmith, he discovered articles that show a community of Hawaiians from every island except uninhabited Kaho‘olawe. Their stories reveal an active community with its members trying to live their lives as normally as possible in the face of a debilitating disease. The first section of the book contains newspaper articles arranged under an alphabetical listing of place names. The second section organizes the material into chronological segments, from before the establishment of the Kalaupapa Settlement to the death of Mother Marianne Cope in 1918. These two sections are followed by a collection of kanikau or lamentations, interviews with Kalaupapa residents, and a list of Hawaiian language newspapers. Introductory paragraphs for groupings of newspaper articles assist the reader in visualizing the physical landscape and understanding the history and significance of a particular location. The poetry of the Hawaiian language is evident throughout the translations, especially in the kanikau.