No‘u Revilla was born and raised in Waiehu on the north coast of Maui, where she grew up immersed in Native Hawaiian culture. Revilla graduated from Kamehameha Schools Kapalama in 2004 and continued her education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa where she received a doctorate in English in 2019. She currently teaches creative writing with an emphasis on ‘Oiwi (Hawaiian) literature in the UH-Manoa English department.

In 2021, Revilla’s debut book of poetry, “Ask the Brindled,” was one of five selected for publication by the National Poetry Series. In it, she addresses the intertwined issues of Native Hawaiian culture, heritage, family lineage, sexual identity, resistance to haole (non-Hawaiian) domination and the importance of mo‘o — the powerful supernatural beings who often take the shape of large lizards or beautiful women. “Ask the Brindled” is available for $16 at Native Books in Honolulu (nativebookshawaii.org) and at Milkweed Publications (milkweed.org).

At the beginning of this month, Revilla, 36, celebrated the book’s publication at Waiwai Collective in Moiliili.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What should people know about the book?

It’s important for me to say that I was raised by strong, intelligent Hawaiian women and a loving Hawaiian father. My teachers and mentors have supported me every step of the way, my communities believe in me, and because of this “Ask the Brindled” was able to become a very mo‘o affirming, wahine-centered, queer-loving, aloha aina book. Mo‘o, of course, are shape-shifting water protectors who in Hawaiian mo‘olelo (stories) often appear in the form of wahine and lizards, and the brindled in the title refers to the skin of mo‘o, or the coat of animals like brindled dogs who protect mo‘o — so in addition to themes of desire and intergenerational healing, the poems in the book also map stories of protection. Like, what happens when you are strong enough to believe that not only are you worth protecting, but you are also a worthy protector? What happens when we come to this belief as a collective?

Who is your intended audience? Who are you writing for?

I appreciate every reader who comes to “Ask the Brindled” and chooses to make story with me, but I did write this book for other ‘oiwi wahine (Hawaiian women), especially my slyly reproductive siblings, you know, those who love and build family beyond hetero-normative scripts. … We are living proof of how revolutionary aloha can be. So I hope this book earns a place, however humble, in the tradition of mo‘olelo that affirms we are not wrong and we are not alone. Mo‘o recognize mo‘o, and I offer my book in the spirit of recognition and connection.

Your comment at the book launch about (Pele’s sister) Hi‘iaka killing mo‘o as she traveled got me thinking — do mo‘o get a bad rap from storytellers?

Yeah, so, I think, and this is true for the book also, it’s more than binary between the hero and the villain, it’s more about connection and approaching story and history from a sense of rigor and abundance. So, yes, in terms of the mo‘olelo that are frequently heard and carried, mo‘o are often depicted as terrifying monsters who cause unnecessary harm through their jealousy and reckless tempers … who are consistently depicted as arrogant and territorial. But if we read deeper and wider in the archive of Hawaiian mo‘olelo — mo‘olelo Hawaii — in our language, it’s very easy to see a more nuanced understanding and respect for mo‘o. It’s not surprising in Hawaiian culture that these guardians of water are also intimately tied to understandings of justice.

Do you have a “what’s next?” you can tell me about?

Gratitude inspires reciprocity. I’m very grateful for the way my families and communities are showing up for the book. So I want to keep showing up for them by creating work that empowers and embraces. Collaboration is very important in my practice, so I’m currently collaborating with other Indigenous Pacifica women who are visual artists, to really make work that lifts poetry off the page and moves it into other realms. I’m excited for those projects and those collaborations.