The Separating Sickness: Ma'i Ho'oka'awale

Interviews with exiled leprosy patients at Kalaupapa, Hawaii.

This book is about the stigma of leprosy in Hawaii and how sick Hawaiian people were treated. But today it might also be about the stigma of AIDS, or SARS or the Bird Flu. Anywhere. It is a book about fear. Fear of pandemic, and fear of sick people. Fear of the unknown. Same stigma, different diseases. Diseases with no quick cures or fixes. In the future, Public Health policy could very well be the same with other diseases as they were with leprosy in Hawaii. Mandatory isolation. This book is about fear and the disgrace, shame, and imprisonment of sick people, and what those sick people experienced. It is painful to read some of their descriptions. Let us hope that in the future, compassion, understanding and assistance to those affected by disease will prevail. Let us not lose our humanity in the face of fear. — Ted Gugelyk

Soft cover. 124 pages. 6 inches by 9 inches.