Hānai Project

(2017-Present)

Hānai. Adopted. 

I know what it means to be hānai even though I was not raised in Hawai'i. Before I was hānai I was already adopted.

This project is an autoethnography about my experience as someone who has been twice adopted. This multimedia project explores how local knowledge in the context of Hawai'i is taught and learned and how the experience of learning this local knowledge charged me to learn more about myself. Told in a series of images and written vignettes, this project considers how learning local knowledge in Hawai’i and embracing my identity as hānai has helped me to better understand my positionality as an adopted daughter.

This project is a work in progress.

Photographs and Writing by Laura-Ann Jacobs
Watercolor Art by Katie Wong