Holy Mōlī Albatross and Other Ancestors

About this book

Hob Osterlund moved to Hawai'i after being visited in a dream by an ancestor, Martha Beckwith, author of the monumental classic, Hawaiian Mythology. It was there, on the island of Kaua'i, where she happened upon a few courting albatross and felt an inexplicable attraction to the birds an attraction too powerful to be explained by their beguiling airbrushed eye shadows, enormous wingspans, and rollicking dances.

In Hawaiian mythology, ancestors may occupy the physical forms of animals known as 'aumakua. Laysan albatross known as mōlī are among them. Smitten with these charismatic creatures, Osterlund set out to learn everything she could about mōlī. She eventually came to embrace them as her 'aumakua not as dusty old myths on a museum bookshelf, but as breathing, breeding, boisterous realities.

Albatross sport many superlative qualities. They live long sometimes longer than sixty years and spend the majority of their time airborne, gliding across vast oceanic expanses. They are model mates and devoted parents, and are among the only animals known to take long-term same-sex partners. In nesting season, they rack up inconceivable mileage just to find supper for chicks waiting on the islands of the Hawaiian archipelago.

It is from the island of Kaua'i that Holy Mōlī takes flight. Osterlund relates a true tale of courage, celebration and grief of patience, affection and resilience. This is the story of how albatross guided the author on her own long journey, retracing distances and decades, back to the origin of a binding bargain she struck when she was ten years old, shortly after her mother's death.

Holy Mōlī is a natural history of the albatross, a moving memoir of grief, and a soaring tribute to ancestors. Within its pages are lyrics of wonder for freedom, for beauty, and for the far-flung feathered creatures known to us as "albatross".

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Biography

Hob Osterlund is an award-winning writer and photographer whose work has appeared in National Geographic Explorer, The New York Times, Nature, and more. In her previous career, she served as an advanced practice nurse in a large medical center; now she devotes her time to her lifelong passion for wildlife. As Founder of the Kaua'i Albatross Network, she serves as Habitat Liaison for private property owners who host Laysan albatross, an iconic species that s begun to repopulate its ancient home in the Hawaiian Islands. She lives on Kaua'i with her partner.