Choosing My Name: A Poem for Saturday
How many names do you have? Puanani Burgess, a young Hawaiian poet, reminds us that we all have more than one name. She does that by describing her multiple names. But hers aren’t simply metaphorical; they represent what it means to live in a richly diverse culture that is strengthened and challenged by that ethnic diversity. Three names to help her navigate the societal and familial challenges that attend her. Three names, each of which witnesses to a part of her identity, both given and forged. Yet her identity is, I think, elusive, something finally that is in, with, and under these names and yet more than the sum of their parts. It is, I suspect, both as fragile and resilient as a tropical flower.
Yes, three names have been given to her, yet she will embrace both what she has been given and what she will make of it and in so doing will choose her name. So may we all.
“Choosing My Name”
by Puanani Burgess
When I was born my mother gave me three names:
Christanbelle, Yoshie, and Puanani
Christanbelle was my “English” name,
My social security card name,
My school name,
The name I gave when teachers asked me for my “real” name
A safe name
Yoshie was my home name
My everyday name,
The name that reminded my father’s family
That I was japanese, even though
My nose, hips, and feet were wide,
The name that made me acceptable to them
Who called my Hawaiian mother kuroi (black),
A saving name
Puanani is my chosen name
My piko name connecting me back to the `aina
And the kai and the po`e kahiko
My blessing, my burden,
My amulet, my spear.
I love this poem. I first heard it on a documentary — an anthology of Hawaiian music, called “Hawaiian Rainbow.”
I’ve versions of this poem with slightly different wording…so I guess its a living work. However, her name is always stated as “Christabelle” so perhaps that is a correction to be made here.