University of Hawaiʻi Maui College Associate Professor Joseph Keola Donaghy’s debut book, Mele On The Mauna: Perpetuating Genealogies of Hawaiian Musical Activism on Maunakea, has been released.
The book explores the role of musical performance and composition in opposing the construction of the Thirty-Meter Telescope on Maunakea. In writing Mele On The Mauna, Donaghy interviewed approximately 35 individuals, including composers, performers, kiaʻi and global audiences via social media. Haku mele (Hawaiian composers) created numerous new songs, many of which were commercially released to benefit the movement.
“These people were following the compositional and performative practices of their ancestors before and after the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and during the efforts to stop the U.S. military from bombing Kaho‘olawe in the 1970s,” Donaghy said. “Music contributed to both, documenting and performing resistance to those events.”
Donaghy will discuss his research at four events across Hawaiʻi, starting with the Hawaiʻi Book and Music Festival at UH Mānoa on September 15.
Published by Indiana University Press, Mele On The Mauna is part of the “Activist Encounters in Folklore and Ethnomusicology” series. For more information, visit meleonthemauna.com.
