Paradise
/ˈperəˌdīs/
an ideal or idyllic place or state.
One of my first memories on this street was walking into the living room of my tiny 1-bedroom apartment and screaming as I saw a lion waiting for me. A little over 20 years later, I think back to this memory and the sense of place I attach to Keʻeaumoku Street. From the top of Keʻeaumoku Street, you can see the ocean below. But there’s no memory of what was. The loʻi were forgotten and replaced with homes stippling the mountains, short apartments next to churches lining the street below, and the concrete jungle right past the bridge separating residential life from commercial life. A new sense of place is attached to this street, settler colonialism works to forget the past and replace it with the new. Paradise. But what isn’t shown are the homeless encampments, constant construction, and the displacement of Native Hawaiians on Native land.
Cultural Geography Specialty Group 