“It was about how you love and how you care for yourself in relation to the world”
Part 2 of our interview with Val Kalei Kanuha, abolitionist & pioneer in the movement against intimate partner violence
Albert and Michelle:
Hello!
This week we share part II of our interview with Val Kalei Kanuha, a pioneer in what was first called the battered women’s movement in the 1970s, and now a vital voice in restorative and transformative justice movements. (You can read part I here, where she reflects openly about the successes and mistakes of her work.)
Here Kalei shares her life story. She was born and raised in a rural town in Hawaii to a Hawaiian father and a Nisei mother. She recalls her close relationship with her mother, who grew up extremely poor, was disowned for marrying a Hawaiian, and in turn fiercely protected her children from discrimination. She remembers fondly how her Hawaiian grandma came home from church with snacks like dried abalone. She shares the joy of coming out as a lesbian in the early 1970s: “At that moment I felt a sense of liberation, a sense that I finally belonged in the world.” And she talks briefly about her work in Hawaiian cultural interventions that work wit…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to A Broad and Ample Road to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.