1st Annual Moku O Keawe Kapa Festival Delights Visitors and Participants

    
The First Annual Moku O Keawe Kapa Festival at the Amy Greenwell Botanical Gardens began on an overcast friday morning with protocols and introductions, and as is appropriate, everyone straight to work in the mala wauke, tending and weeding the garden where the source material for kapa making was happily growing.  The Festival was also a workshop opportunity for those who wanted to deepen their skills in kapa making and many of the students had attended a summer workshop where they had made their own kapa tools.  For three days haumana learned about cultivation methods, dye material gathering and processing and of course, pounding kapa.

Wrapped in Tradition

(Maui Magazine, Sept-October 2011)

 Article about how native traditions and sensibilities influence 3 young women in their clothing design company.

"The brown-skinned beauties who for generations adorned book jackets and sheet-music covers, movie posters and travel ads, may have conveyed the romance of tropical islands, but their clingy sarongs and swishy grass skirts didn’t mirror reality.

What did real-life islanders wear before western missionaries introduced the all-concealing muumuu?

Hawaii’s benign climate called for fashion of simple construction and suitably cool material. Early Hawaiians, from makaainana (commoners) to alii (royalty), wore everyday clothing mostly fabricated from kapa, whose name, “the beaten thing,” refers to its laborious preparation. Kapa makers stripped the bark of the wauke (mulberry) plant, soaked and fermented it, then rhythmically beat it into a fine and surprisingly soft cloth."

Read the article in its entirety in the Maui Magazine online

 A Day at Queen Emma Summer Palace

35th Annual Day at the Palace

 Enjoy a beautiful day in Manoa at the annual fundraising event for the Queen Emma Summer Palace.  Great music, ono food, handmade crafts and artwork are just a few of the things to enjoy at this breathtaking home.  Walk through the palace and see monarchy era treasures and artifacts, including a lot of wonderful kapa!  Dalani will be at the event doing kapa, along with other practitioners, sharing their talents.

For more information visit their website at http://daughtersofhawaii.org/

MAMo: Maoli Arts Month

MAMo Maoli Arts Month is a broad community-based effort to celebrate the depth, breadth, and diversity of the Native Hawaiian arts community. MAMo promotes economic opportunities for Native Hawaiian artists and cultural practitioners by increasing their presence in museums and galleries. One of our aims is to educate locals and visitors about Native Hawaiian art.

 Now in its sixth year, Maoli Arts Month continues to be THE showcase event for Native Hawaiian artists.  This year is special to us at Kapa Hawaii because Dalani is one of the artists whos work, along with that of renowned painter and mixed media artist Carl F.K. Pao, is featured on the 2011 catalogue and other promotional materials.  "Its really a great honor to have my work used this way" says Dalani.  " I have been a part of MAMo arts since 2007 and support the activities as much as I can, as they have done so much to promote the wide spectrum of artwork created by our Native Hawaiian artists and practitioners."

  For 2011 Dalani will be involved in these events:

 -"Kuakino: The Changer and the Changed"  An exhibit at Marks Garage, April 27-June 4

"I think of Kalama standing before Ku, and the ko`i and his wielder, or the kapa maker and her kapa.  How the process of creation and reflection are often one and the same.  We are what we do, what we make, what we see, what we believe.  ANd the cycle continues, as those who pass through the gallery bear witness and themselves touched."---Noelle Kahanu

Dalani will have work in this show

 2010 MAMO Native Hawaiian Arts Market

The culminating event of the 5th Annual Maoli Arts Month activites was the Native Hawaiian Arts Market and Keiki Art Festival, held on the grounds of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii on May 22, 2010.  It is a rare opportunity to see so many native Hawaiian artists presenting their skills and workmanship in ancient, traditional and contemporary arts.  From weaving,textiles and kapa, to works in stone, wood, feathers, shells and gourds, to fine oil painting, graphic designs and photography.  These are all master craftspeople, artisians and practitioners with a great love for not only keeping traditional arts alive, but adding their own heartt, soul and mana to many of those arts.  Along with the art also comes love of the land, aloha `aina,  in chosing sustainable woods and products to create many of the works, to love of ancient culture and the ways of the ancestors or kupuna, in keeping and preserving the many types of beautiful and functional items that they made for day to day use.

Kapa in Gallery Showings

Kapa Hawaii is pleased to announce that Dalani has kapa for show and sale in two local galleries.  She has two large framed kapa at these two locations.  Please support our local artists and galleries by checking out: Andrew Rose Gallery 

www.andrewrosegallery.com
 E`E
Runs to May 29, 2010
Featuring fine vintage and contemporary art of Hawaii...
 
Andrew Rose, himself an artist as well as an art instructor at the Island Pacific Academy, is currating a gallery of wonderful and eclectic art, nestled high in the forests of Tantalus.  Well worth the drive, not only for the beauty of the locale, but especially for the collection of art he has gathered from island artists.  Please visit his website for more information.

 Mala Wauke Work Day

A big Mahalo to the intrepid crew who braved the hot eyeball of the sun at Hoa `Aina o Makaha during our mala wauke work day.  Students from Leeward Community College/Wai`anae Campus joined with some students from Leeward's Continuing Ed kapa Class to help clean, weed and plant new wauke plants.  Many hands make the work easy and light and those hands were very much appreciated!

More Kapa at the new Martin and Macarthur

Please be sure to visit any of the Martin and MacArthur Fine Koa Furniture stores, especially at their newest locations in the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel in Waikiki and Whalers Village in Lahaina Maui.  You can find Dalani's kapa work at any of their stores, along with Hawaiian weapons, featherwork, fine gift items and of course, beautiful Koa items, from jewelry boxes to king size beds.

Learn more at Martin and Macarthur website