In Red Dreams, Volcano Visions, award-winning author, Kathryn Waddell Takara, PhD, presents contemporary ecological and environment issues in a context of a volcanic eruption.
Her aim is to elevate the consciousness from a moral desert of conscience and caring to a level of awareness to transform the abuse of magnificent Nature to another level of respect for life, sustenance, and a healing of the earth.
In her poetry, Takara includes Hawaiian mythology, startling photos, disquieting red lava flows and the daily community losses of land, homes, and livelihood. Some speculate that the destruction was caused by ignorance, irreverence for the sacred land and its power, and the greed of the developers who sold land on a high risk rift zone.
Takara likewise illuminates the reader about Hawai`i and its people, Kanaka Maole, their spiritual traditions, history, continuing reverence for Nature, and the significance of the ancestral memories, legends, and myths on contemporary culture and life styles.
Takara's subtext is a commentary on the climate crisis and dire situation and conditions of our earth. She observes the relationship between man and Nature and the unpredictable and predictable consequences of abuse. She includes philosophical and metaphysical questions of identity, conscience and transformation.
She witnesses the neo-colonial and colonial geologies and geographies of resistance and the psychological effects of loss and restoration in a social context of race, class, and culture. Her message: we must get right with the earth.
