Nana on the Curb

In this Poem Gizelle Gajelonia takes Eric Chock’s Poem “Tutu on the Curb” which represents the disappearing Hawaiian culture. Gajelonia rewrites the poem to speak to the Filipino instead of the Hawaiian. This serves to show the displacement of the native Hawaiian in their home. Other racial groups have been introduced to Hawaii for labor purposes. This is important to Gajelonia’s poem because as she specifically speaks of the Filipino in Hawaii we know that the Diaspora of the Filipino almost overwhelm the Hawaiians now. The Hawaiian presence is dying out and the idea of he local and Hawaiian culture is changing. There are many layers to Gajelonia’s poem however I think that the displacement of the Hawaiian is the underlying point. She replaces the Hawaiian with the Filipino and describes the working condition of this grandmother that she says, “Pretty soon, she will be napukaw, meaning lost or disappeared. The same way that the hardworking grandmother will be napukaw so are the Hawaiians as other cultures come to the land and work the land. The disappearing land and grandmother connects Gajelonia’s version of this poem with Chock’s version. It brings the grandmother back and brings the presence back. Almost as a reminder of how this changed for the Hawaiians in a similar way that they will change for this grandmother. 

-Loren