Dawn Fraser Kawahara's Books

Jackals' Wedding

A Memoir of a Childhood in British India

By: Dawn Kawahara

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Jackals' Wedding

A Memoir of a Childhood in British India

By: Dawn Kawahara

Jackals Wedding, my story within a family story set in India, the land of my birth, tells of a past of puzzling opposites. "Tigers, and oil, and tea are all I remember," I once blithely answered an Indian professor whod taken me for a whirl. When he stopped dead, held me at arms length and searched my eyes, I had to think twice about the superficial untruth Id blurted. There were many parts of my early life Id locked away in the dark, just like my mother, and my grandmother before her. The good things that surfaced were idealized, airbrushed into scenes worthy of Kipling, or The Little Princess. I knew the romantic version, but what was the truth? What had really happened during those years in India? How had my mother and father became ensnared in a storm and sun relationship, a "jackals wedding," with my sister and me dragged along unwittingly? How had the exigencies of wartime prevented them from dealing with their own blow-ups? What was the big taboo within our family? Why so many secrets locked away, as my mothers heart had seemed locked to me? I was hungry to know the truth, so I began to dig down to the beginning through my first memories that are entwined with the unrest of the times. With a stroke of serendipity, my husband convinced me I must return to India, the land of my birth, and my childhood home in Dehra Dun. During this trip together, time spans were erased. People stepped forward to help. Images and voices and feelings came flooding back, and I was ready to examine them as Id examined the belongings that had traveled half the world in battered leather cases. Brought to light, the joys of my childhood flashed vivid and fragile as glass bangles. Fears that had lurked large as nightmare lions and scary as snakes dissolved like thunderheads shrinking and fading into a quiet sky. In Jackals Wedding, the stories of the child I was and the woman Ive become are braided with my mothers story and the stories she told. Many times during the writing, it seemed she was back, whispering in my ear what she wasnt able to tell, in life. I am still searching for my father.

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578

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ISBN 10

1403343020

ISBN 13

9781403343024

Burma Banyan

A Daughter’s Odyssey

By: Dawn Fraser Kawahara

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Burma Banyan

A Daughter’s Odyssey

By: Dawn Fraser Kawahara

In BURMA BANYAN, A Daughter’s Odyssey, the reader is invited on an intimate set of travels as the author overcomes qualms about returning to Burma after a life span. Memories of Dawnie, her child self, besiege her. These memories are not set in the peaceful, civilized atmosphere of Dehra Dun, nestled in the hills north of Delhi, the setting of her notable first memoir–Jackals’ Wedding, A Memoir of a Childhood in British India–but in remote areas of northern Burma and in Mandalay, the capital of “Upper Burmah,” in an unstable atmosphere and generally unsafe surroundings. The Burma sojourn of the author’s immediate family following Japanese occupation during World War II begins with a replay of their last days in India, continuing the compelling true story within a family story. Counterpoint with modern-day travels, the author once again revisits a long-locked past to probe the truth of romanticized early life. She reveals how she and her sister coped with expectations and warnings and absorbed the fears and insecurity of their parents in the aftermath of war to compound their own secret worries, how they became adept at assessing their grownups’ mood swings, and chameleonic in adapting themselves accordingly. Entertaining stories of the generations before, ancestors who settled in India and Burma from faraway lands, flow naturally as the daughters’ parents, Pansy and William, return to live for a time in the country of their birth. Their resulting storm-and-sun relationship, the nucleus of the symbolic “jackals’ wedding,” continues as such in BURMA BANYAN. Kawahara’s odyssey, which completes in an unexpected way, also takes readers from Hawai`i to the British Isles, and forays to Australia and New Zealand in search of “lost” family members. The search for a missing father–and a home–is the taproot of these journeys.

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421

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ISBN 10

1728323312

ISBN 13

9781728323312

The 'Green Flash' Calabash

Pre-Pandemic Kaua`I Chronicles

By: Dawn Fraser Kawahara

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The 'Green Flash' Calabash

Pre-Pandemic Kaua`I Chronicles

By: Dawn Fraser Kawahara

This book comes as your ticket to a virtual vacation, inviting you to dive into the heart of the tropical island of Kaua`i, Hawai`i, U.S.A. Please come, especially if you are a “capital ‘T’ Traveler” who digs deeper than surface pleasures of a new place, connects with people of the land, and celebrates differences as well as similarities. You may explore from front to back, vice-versa, or spot-read whatever pages fall open to your touch. All will be right. By accepting the author’s invitation, you’re assured of eventual enjoyment of thought-provoking segments categorized as “Outdoor Discoveries,” “Island Celebrations,” “Eyes to Sky, & Sea,” “Umbilical Ties” and more, including a drink from “The Water of Life.” Kaua`i island could be considered your adventure to “Anyplace, World.” Aside from particularities of discoverers and settlement, the foundational needs and desires of all peoples of the world hold true: A homeland–a place of freedom and peace; a place to work and sustain a healthy life, to play and recreate; a safe place to raise and educate children; a place to protect, preserve, love and pass forward to coming generations. The time span covered draws from the onset of swift modern development and increased tourism that threatens a cherished lifestyle to the threshold of COVID-19. The Afterword deals with the isolation the life-threatening pandemic imposes, and the economic and emotional challenges that stem from an isolation severely underlined when an island home already lies as a far speck within the wide Pacific Ocean. The guiding mantra throughout–”Believe in the Unexpected!”–from the author’s “Green Flash” experience shared with her “Dear Readers,” holds truer than true as we move with hope and courage into our globally-connected future.

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408

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ISBN 10

1665525894

ISBN 13

9781665525893

Behold Kaua'i

Modern Days - Ancient Ways

By: Dawn Fraser Kawahara

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Behold Kaua'i

Modern Days - Ancient Ways

By: Dawn Fraser Kawahara

This book invites you to an island described by many as paradise. Behold Kaua`i is designed to bring you lasting enjoyment and insight through the poet’s eyes, and a sense of this far-flung and ancient island in modern times and from a Hawaiian cultural and historical perspective. Behold Kaua`i is not meant to be read in one sitting, but savored as one savors and enjoys a special friend or lover, or a favorite place in which to dream and renew. As with a best friend or love who remains constant and vital, it is hoped that your initial encounter and many return engagements deepen and intensify your experience with this collection of sensitive and sensuous poems and descriptive notes.

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Page Count

148

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ISBN 10

1463470037

ISBN 13

9781463470036

Jackals' Wedding

A Memoir of a Childhood in British India

By: Dawn Kawahara

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Jackals' Wedding

A Memoir of a Childhood in British India

By: Dawn Kawahara

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578

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ISBN 10

1403343020

ISBN 13

9781403343024

Burma Banyan

A Daughter’s Odyssey

By: Dawn Fraser Kawahara

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Burma Banyan

A Daughter’s Odyssey

By: Dawn Fraser Kawahara

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421

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ISBN 10

1728323312

ISBN 13

9781728323312

Burma Banyan

A Daughter's Odyssey

By: Dawn Fraser Kawahara

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Burma Banyan

A Daughter's Odyssey

By: Dawn Fraser Kawahara

In BURMA BANYAN, A Daughter's Odyssey, the reader is invited on an intimate set of travels as the author overcomes qualms about returning to Burma after a life span. Memories of Dawnie, her child self, besiege her. These memories are not set in the peaceful, civilized atmosphere of Dehra Dun, nestled in the hills north of Delhi, the setting of her notable first memoir-Jackals' Wedding, A Memoir of a Childhood in British India-but in remote areas of northern Burma and in Mandalay, the capital of "Upper Burmah," in an unstable atmosphere and generally unsafe surroundings. The Burma sojourn of the author's immediate family following Japanese occupation during World War II begins with a replay of their last days in India, continuing the compelling true story within a family story. Counterpoint with modern-day travels, the author once again revisits a long-locked past to probe the truth of romanticized early life. She reveals how she and her sister coped with expectations and warnings and absorbed the fears and insecurity of their parents in the aftermath of war to compound their own secret worries, how they became adept at assessing their grownups' mood swings, and chameleonic in adapting themselves accordingly. Entertaining stories of the generations before, ancestors who settled in India and Burma from faraway lands, flow naturally as the daughters' parents, Pansy and William, return to live for a time in the country of their birth. Their resulting storm-and-sun relationship, the nucleus of the symbolic "jackals' wedding," continues as such in BURMA BANYAN. Kawahara's odyssey, which completes in an unexpected way, also takes readers from Hawai`i to the British Isles, and forays to Australia and New Zealand in search of "lost" family members. The search for a missing father-and a home-is the taproot of these journeys.

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Page Count

448

Published Date

ISBN 10

1728323320

ISBN 13

9781728323329

Haliʻa of Hawaiʻi

A Legacy of Language : a Memoir

By: Frances Nelson Frazier,Dawn Fraser Kawahara

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Haliʻa of Hawaiʻi

A Legacy of Language : a Memoir

By: Frances Nelson Frazier,Dawn Fraser Kawahara

This memoir takes us adventuring on sailing ships through "flying boats" to jet airplanes, exploring the author's Hawaii vignettes, "Letters from Dacca," travel stories, and stories of her sea captain father--his own nautical story embedded at book's end. We learn how life events led to rediscovery of the Hawaiian language, the author's blood legacy, and how she accomplished her own legacy of important work. We gallop, sail and swim near Lanikai with a young girl at an earlier, more gentle time on Oahu. We learn of work, romance, marriage and the beginning of life as a family. We watch with that young mother the bombing of Pearl Harbor, how she shields her baby from strafing while wondering if her engineer husband at dockside is alive. Halia, A Legacy of Language is an account of a pono (good, beneficial) life of trust in its many decades as they unfolded, bringing the author important work to be done in Hawaii that became entwined with her passion for learning and correctly translating the Hawaiian language, especially relating to land deeds and rights to the aina, the land, for people of Hawaiian heritage. We share the joy of an inquiring mind expanding and questioning with the opportunities that came for travel and residency abroad, and resultant contrast and comparison with home and different cultural ways in Hawaii. The individuality of "Aunty Halia's" life olelo (story) reflects the experiences of one daughter of Hawaii, but by its very individuality offers a universal connection with people, their sensibilities, and places around the globe. All of these parts merge in the telling of the serendipity of a journey as exciting and challenging as the journeys that brought her master mariner father to Hawaii at an earlier time.

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Page Count

244

Published Date

ISBN 10

1449077080

ISBN 13

9781449077082

Book's by Dawn Fraser Kawahara

Jackals' Wedding

Jackals' Wedding

Burma Banyan

Burma Banyan

The 'Green Flash' Calabash

The 'Green Flash' Calabash

Behold Kaua'i

Behold Kaua'i

Jackals' Wedding

Jackals' Wedding

Burma Banyan

Burma Banyan

Burma Banyan

Burma Banyan

Haliʻa of Hawaiʻi

Haliʻa of Hawaiʻi

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