Press | Lurline McGregor

Aloha ʻoe, Senator Inouye

After the 1986 election, Senator Inouye called me and asked me to be his professional staff for Native Hawaiian issues on the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, to which he had just been appointed chair. I had lost my previous job when my boss lost his bid for governor and was already co-producing a television series on Native Hawaiian issues in Hawaiʻi. I asked Senator Inouye if he could wait until the following June for me to start, and he did. During that period between 1987 and the time I returned home again in 1992, to work on his Honolulu staff before branching out on my own, the committee passed significant legislation that directly benefitted Native Hawaiians. The Native Hawaiian Education Act, The Native Hawaiian Health Care Act, The Native Hawaiian Revolving Loan Act, the Native Languages Act and the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act were among the significant bills [Read More...]

Aloha ʻoe, Senator InouyeLurlineM2019-06-05T05:34:20+00:00

Review: August 2010 Honolulu Magazine

Lurline McGregor, a local screenwriter and film producer, can now add another title to her list of credits: award-winning author. McGregor spent two years writing her 2008 novel Between the Deep Blue Sea and Me; this year, it won the American Indian Youth Literature Award for Best Young Adult Book. “It’s very exciting,” says McGregor, who traveled to Washington, D.C., in June to accept the award from the American Indian Library Association (AILA). She’s the first Native Hawaiian to win an AILA award. “This is my first attempt at writing fiction,” she says. “I feel very grateful and blessed for everything that’s happened.” In the novel, a Hawaii-born anthropologist is torn between a glittering career on the Mainland and her Hawaiian ancestral responsibilities—in particular, the repatriation of a cultural artifact. The dilemma was inspired by the real-life controversy earlier this decade in which the group Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawaii [Read More...]

Review: August 2010 Honolulu MagazineLurlineM2019-06-05T06:52:50+00:00

2010 American Indian Youth Literature Award

The American Indian Library Association gave out its awards this past June 28th for youth literature. My book, Between the Deep Blue Sea and Me, won for best Young Adult Fiction. My publisher, Kamehameha Publishing, sent me to Washington, D.C. to receive the award in person. It was a great trip and a fun ceremony, fun because the Piscataway Indian Nation Singers and Dancers, who offered a cultural presentation, invited the audience up to participate in two dances! Itʻs always nice to visit Washington, where I lived for almost 15 years. Thanks to Jim McCallum for the photo.

2010 American Indian Youth Literature AwardLurlineM2019-06-06T23:40:26+00:00

Maui News Review

Cultural spirits meet modern Hawaii in ‘Deep Blue Sea’ BETWEEN THE DEEP BLUE SEA AND ME by Lurline Wailana McGregor (Kamehameha Publishing, $15) Like the lapping of waves on a shoreline, "Between the Deep Blue Sea and Me" enthralls slowly, gently, undeniably. It's an absorbing tale that one can read in a night and, like J.K. Rowling, suggests magic, ghosts and goblins, the latter in the form of prophetic earthquakes. Lurline Wailana McGregor has crafted an absorbing, knowing tale. The novel deals with a cogent isle issue: resolving the search for Native Hawaiian identity. Read Complete Article

Maui News ReviewLurlineM2016-03-01T22:52:10+00:00

Mana’o Ulu Wale Review

In the voice of darkness, birds stirred with anticipation. The approaching daylight separated sky from earth. By the time the first rays of the sun reached the top of the Ko‘olau Mountains, the birds were already in full chorus, celebrating the arrival of a new day. On the leeward coast of O‘ahu, a Hawaiian woman, ageless as the ocean, stood in the mystery, ready to carry out her role in the morning ceremony. Water lapped as the tide rose. Into the darkness, facing the intense calm of the water, she began to chant. The primal sound of her voice was filled with the power of those who came before her. Her song carried out to sea. So begins award-winning filmmaker Lurline McGregor’s first novel, Between the Deep Blue Sea and Me. Turning her cinematic eye to a story that inherently resonates with so many of us, McGregor delves into what makes a [Read More...]

Mana’o Ulu Wale ReviewLurlineM2016-03-01T22:52:15+00:00