Lowcountry Gullah

Even with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Black History from Southern Illinois University, Luana M. Graves Sellars was not prepared to experience living on Hilton Head Island, one of the most culturally rich and historic areas of the South. A random encounter enabled Luana to return to her roots as a writer, enabling her to become a contributing writer for Local Life Magazine and the Hilton Head Monthly and Bluffton Monthly magazines. Since she began her Lowcountry Gullah writing, her focus has been on Gullah culture, history, people and native island issues. The richness of the Gullah culture and it's resilience, her writing gravitated into the monthly column, First Families of Hilton Head and then the Local Roots series of articles. Since 2015, she has researched, documented and published the family cultural legacies through hundreds of articles. Through her work as a genealogist coupled with her writing, she has connected her stories generationally, including the depth of her own Gullah family. As a self-described community activist and cultural influencer, Luana spends most of her days working towards "residential equality" for Hilton Head Island's local Gullah community as one of the Native Island Leaders. A frequent speaker on the Gullah culture, the divorced mother of two daughters, has traveled the world extensively, yet she spent most of her life coming to the island for holidays where she has always considered home.