Art exposition to promote Native Hawaiian culture

Native Hawaiian culture will not be perpetuated unless practitioners are able to pass along their techniques and manao — heartfelt thoughts behind their ways, traditions and methods — to willing audiences.

Oahu’s first Native Hawaiian Arts & Culture Expo is planned for mid-November as a way to share Hawaiian culture and arts with the local community and visitors.

People who want to learn feather arts, such as making lei hulu (feather lei) and small kahili (feather standards), or lau hala weaving and other indigenous crafts, can do so at the two-day event.

Those not interested in learning a craft will be able to buy the items from a host of vendors.

The exposition is being staged by the Hawaii Culture & Retail Association in partnership with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association. It will bring together Hawaiian cultural practitioners, traditional and contemporary artists and Hawaiian entertainers to promote the perpetuation of Hawaiian culture, said Kamaka Pili, HCRA’s cultural adviser.

Attendance is free, but there are fees for the cultural workshops. Reservations are required and can be made and paid for online.

The making of kapa, natural dyes and stamping with hand-carved ohe kapala will be demonstrated by Moana Eisele, while Mary Cesar will teach the basics of Hawaiian quilting. Mele Kahalepuna Chun and Helemano Lee each will demonstrate different feather crafts in make-and-take workshops. Chun will demonstrate feather lei making, and Lee will demonstrate the making of kahili, in which every feather is a prayer, according to the workshop flier.

Additional workshops on the making of Niihau shell jewelry, lau hala weaving and healing arts also will be staged by well-known practitioners.

Organizers want those interested to learn these practices with authenticity, from the source.

“We also are working with travel desks to see how we can … incorporate the expo as a destination for (tourists) on their visit here,” Pili said. “Our goal is that we can be the hosts of our culture and work with the visitors to share it with the authentic sense, to create that experience for them.”

Visitors can learn to make something, and what they have created “will become a conversation piece, something that connects them with Hawaii” long after they’ve gone, he said.

Organizers hope out-of-state attendees’ experience at the exposition will be enriched through interaction with local people who also are attending the event.

That there will be traditional and contemporary musical and hula performances is to be expected, but additional guests will give presentations that attendees would be unlikely to see anywhere else, such as Tom “Pohaku” Stone’s discussion of the holua, or Hawaiian sled. In conjunction with artist Bill Wyland’s Wy’s Gallery in Haleiwa, fine artists such as Brook Parker also will be featured in a storytelling, or moolelo, session.

HCRA is a local association that helps local artisans and practitioners get their products and services to market. HCRA, which also brought a contingent of members to the past two years’ Made in Hawaii Festivals, offers mentorship, product development and sales and marketing guidance. Members of HCRA have the opportunity to sell their traditional Hawaiian wares online via islandconnnection.com.

Those who won’t be on Oahu during the event but still want to learn about traditional Hawaiian arts can catch Pili on Olelo’s NATV Channel 53, where he interviews artists and practitioners on the half-hour “Aloha Authentic With Kamaka Pili.” Each new episode premieres at 6 p.m. on the third Monday of the month, and episodes repeat throughout the month. Olelo also offers the opportunity to watch shows online and view videos on demand from its website.

COMING UP

Native Hawaiian Arts & Culture Expo:

>> Where: OHA building (formerly Gentry Pacific Design Center), 560 N. Nimitz Highway

>> When: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 14-15

ONLINE

>> hcra.info/events.html

>> islandconnection.com

>> olelo.org

Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.