Join the California History Section for a webinar on "Native Hawaiians in California: A Conversation with Dr. David Chang and Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes" on Tuesday, May 19 at 4PM! 

Over the past two centuries, Native Hawaiians (Kānaka) have been living, working, and sometimes even settling down in California. While Dr. David Aiona Chang will explore who these Kānaka migrants were, why they came to California, and how they helped shape California history, Jasmin ʻIolani Hakes will explore how fiction can illuminate and augment what colonial record-keeping ignored and avoided and bring to light the largely erased presence of Hawaiian laborers in Gold Rush-era California. Join the California History Section in a conversation where history meets fiction.

• “Making a Home Far from Home: Native Hawaiian Lives in California” with Dr. David Aiona Chang, Native Hawaiian professor of history and American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota

• “The Pōhaku: Where the Archives Go Silent, Fiction Fills the Void” with Jasmin ʻIolani Hakes, author of The Pōhaku.

Meet Our Speakers

David Aiona Chang is a Native Hawaiian professor of history and American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. He has poured his passion for understanding how the past shapes the present into two books and many articles on Native Hawaiian and Native American history. He is currently finishing a new book on California Native history, including the entry of Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) into Indian communities in Northern California.

Jasmin ʻIolani Hakes was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaiʻi and now lives in California. She is the author of The Pōhaku (HarperVia, 2026) and the debut novel Hula, named a Best Book of the Summer by Harper's Bazaar and ELLE, HONOLULU Magazine's 2024 Book of the Year, and winner of an Audiofile Earphones Award. Her essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, LitHub, and the Sacramento Bee, and she is the recipient of residencies from Hedgebrook, VCCA, and Storyknife.