In The Heart of Being Hawaiian, author Sally-Jo Keala-o-Ānuenue Bowman presents a collection of essays, articles and profiles exploring today's Hawaiian people, their culture and practices in an attempt to answer the question, What does "being Hawaiian" mean today and how do we appreciate the culture?

Being Hawaiian is a voyage in words that explores the importance of each of us discovering or re-discovering what it means to be Hawaiian-whether we are Hawaiian by blood or not. The selection of essays included range in subject from the experience of attending the Kamehameha Schools, hula, the Punana Leo language immersion school, lua (Hawaiian martial arts), lomilomi (massage), Kaho'olawe, Kalaupapa, profiles of several Hawaiian kupuna and more. A number of the pieces included in Being Hawaiian have received Pa'i awards from the Hawaii Publishers' Association; in addition, the author has won several other prestigious writing awards for her work both in Hawai'i and the Mainland.