Ka Hana Noʻeau Hawaiʻi

Describes in detail various aspects of Hawaiian featherwork. Discusses each garment or object in regard to its artistic design and appearance, its symbolic significance, the genealogical and heraldic implications in its design and its practical uses and historic importance.
Contents: First encounters -- The birds -- Cultural manifestations -- Lei hulu -- Kāhili -- Akua hulu manu -- Mahiole -- Capes and cloaks.

Designed and written with the beginner in mind, the aspiring featherworker is guided not only through the steps of how to make the lei, but through the soul-satisfying journey which leads to its completion. Included is an overall look at the history of this ancient art; an explanation of the difference between traditional and contemporary lei; interpretations of the traditional colors used and color combinations; a detailed supply list; how to identify, prepare and work with feathers; how to store feather lei; and examples of what types of featherwork is being explore today.

Painstakingly constructed by hand of plant fiber and precious feathers from endemic birds of Hawai'i, feather cloaks and capes provided spiritual protection to Hawaiian chiefs for centuries while proclaiming their royal status. Few of the artworks known as nā hulu ali'i, or royal feathers, survive today except in museums and private collections. Through photographs and scholarly essays, Royal Hawaiian Featherwork highlights approximately seventy-five rare examples of the finest featherwork capes and cloaks ('ahu'ula) extant, as well as royal staffs of feathers (kāhili), feather lei (lei hulu manu), helmets (mahiole), feathered god images (akua hulu manu), and related eighteenth- and nineteenth-century paintings and works on paper. With their brilliant coloring and abstract compositions of crescents, triangles, circles, quadrilaterals, and lines, the artworks are both beautiful and rich in cultural significance. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, featherworks were key items of indigenous Hawaiian diplomacy, used to secure political alliances and agreements, worn as battlefield regalia, and seized as spoils from defeated chiefs. Later, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the featherworks--used in trading and gifts to foreign visitors--became symbols of Hawaiian heritage and cultural pride. This stunningly illustrated volume also serves as the catalogue to accompany the first exhibition of Hawaiian featherwork to be staged on the U.S. continent, scheduled for a six-month run starting in late August 2015 at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The book and exhibition provide an overdue opportunity for the public to discover the central role these artworks played in the culture and history of the Hawaiian Islands, to explore their unparalleled technical craftsmanship, and to discover an aesthetic tradition unique to the Hawaiian archipelago. Essays by: Samuel M. Gon III, Marques Marzan, Maile Andrade, Noelle Kahanu, Betty Kam, Adrienne Kaeppler, Stacy L. Kamehiro, Christina Hellmich, and Roger Rose.

Examines a project to identify the biological components of kahili preserved in the Bishop Museum, to determine techniques of construction and reassess their ethnohistorical significance. Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Available online via JSTOR for UHM patrons.

3 volumes published by Bishop Museum Press in Honolulu 1899 (main work) and two supplements in 1903 and 1918. Illustrated with plates from black and white photographs. Each in original printed paper wrappers. Includes: -- Hawaiian Feather Work. 1899. With color frontispiece.81, ii p., [15] leaves of plates : ill. (some col.) -- Additional Notes on Hawaiian Feather Work. 1903. Vol. I - No. 5. With index to Volume 1. ; 19 p., [4] leaves of plates : ill ; 1 p. l. - Additional Notes on Hawaiian Feather Work: Second Supplement. 1918. Vol. VII - No. 1.69 p. : illus., IV col. pl. These volumes are part of the publication series: "Memoirs of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum of Polynesian Ethnology and Natural History ";T Available online via Hathitrust for UHM patrons.

Available online via Hathitrust for UHM patrons.