01268nam a2200133   4500000000100000008004100001653001200042653001200054653001100066653001600077100001300093245007200106520095600178       2013                            d10aleprosy10aHistory10aHawaii10abook review1 aInglis K00aMa'i Lepera: Disease and displacement in nineteenth-century Hawai'i3 aThe basic story of leprosy on Hawaii is well known. As leprosy rose to prominence in the nineteenth century, the kingdom established a settlement on Molokai where Father (now saint) Damien (born Jozef De Veuster) cared for the suffering victims. Inglis renders this story obsolete. She provides a fascinating and nuanced mo’olelo—a “history, story, tale, myth, tradition, literature, legend, or record”—that puts Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) at the center of the drama. Practicing “ethnographic history,” Inglis sets out “to search for voices yet unheard, to translate the silences, and to find meaning in those past experiences” . She mines sources that previous historians neglected and makes powerful use of Hawaiian language letters, petitions, complaints, and newspaper editorials to reveal a world of suffering and resistance. The result is an important book for anyone interested in the history of disease and colonialism.