Lurline Wailana McGregor

Lurline Wailana McGregor is a writer, filmmaker, administrator and paddler from Hawaii.

McGregor's ancestors were Hawaiian, Chinese, and Scottish.[1] She was named after the ocean liner Lurline, where her parents first met.[2]

In 1986 McGregor joined the staff of Senator Daniel Inouye where she focused on Native American issues.[3]

McGregor has been active in sailing and paddling since the 1990s.[1] She filmed a documentary about her journey aboard the Hōkūleʻa, a double hulled voyaging canoe.[4] The 58 minute film was shown at the 2001 Newport Beach Film Festival.[5]

Later she was CEO and president of 'Ōlelo Community Television, a non-profit access-provider in O'ahu, where she helped establish NATV 53, a channel for native Hawaiian content.[1][6]

In 2008 she authored Between the Deep Blue Sea and Me.[6] The hopeful novel was inspired by the New Zealand film Whale Rider and tells of a Hawaiian-born anthropologist forced to choose between her career on the mainland and her ancestral responsibilities.[7] It deals with themes of activism, politics, and the Hawaiian sovereignty movement.[8] Despite the adult protagonist, the novel appeals to young adult readers and won the 2010 American Indian Youth Literature Award for Best Young Adult Book.[8]

  1. ^ a b c McGregor, Lurline Wailana (25 February 2016). "About". Lurline Wailana McGregor. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  2. ^ Cruz, Catherine (24 December 2020). "The Conversation: Matson's Historic Hawaii Ties". Hawaii Public Radio. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  3. ^ Select Committee on Indian Affairs (1989). Native Hawaiian Reparations Community-based Mental Health Initiative: Hearing Before the Select Committee on Indian Affairs, United States Senate, One Hundredth Congress, Second Session. p. 69.
  4. ^ "Crew Profile: Lurline McGregor". Polynesian Voyaging Society. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  5. ^ "Newport Beach Film Festival Schedule". The L.A. Times. 1 April 2001. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  6. ^ a b Folen, Alana (4 March 2009). "Old Friends: Lurline McGregor". MidWeek. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  7. ^ Ching, Jennifer (29 July 2010). "Novel Success". Honolulu. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  8. ^ a b Rix, Zara (2019). A YA novel without a young adult protagonist: Activism within Lurline Wailana McGregor's Between the Deep Blue Sea and Me (PDF). Children's Literature Association Conference (ChLA).