Convenings

Past Learning Exchange Reports:
Seattle, May 3–5, 2002

Andrea Assaf
2002
Case Session: Hawai'i Alliance for Arts Education, Restoration of King Kamehameha I Statue
In HAAE’s project, hula ki’i or “image dance” workshops and performances presented by traditional artists, including hula ki’i master John Lake and kumu Raylene Lancaster, provided a foundation for the rural community of North Kohala, Hawai’i  to resolve a restoration question regarding a revered sculpture of Kamehameha I, Hawai’i’s first king.  Hula ki’i events engaged community elders, youth, and adults in creative interaction and dialogue around the question of whether the sculpture should be restored to the originally intended gold and bronze finish or continue a community tradition of painting it in life-like colors.  In the face of regional development, these restoration dialogues and arts education projects facilitated by the Hawai’i Alliance for Arts Education further provided a way to explore interrelated issues of protecting and maintaining the community’s unique cultural landscape while providing access to economic opportunity for its residents.

This case session, including video excerpts from a documentary by filmmaker Tuti Baker about the project, focuses  on cultural context and the concept and practice of "arts-based civic dialogue."  Questions include:  What constitutes dialogue, civic dialogue or civic participation in different cultural contexts or traditions?  What are the cultural norms, expectations, or assumptions about communication, decision-making, or learning processes that have bearing on dialogue and civic dialogue projects? 

Presenters:  Raylene Lancaster, kumu (master) of hula and hula ki’i, Hawaiian Civic Club leader; Marilyn Cristofori, executive director, HAAE; Sharon Hayden, Kohala community organizer, Mary Tuti Baker, filmmaker, Ki’i Productions 

The group was welcomed and the session opened with protocol, a chant by Raylene Lancaster and Sharon Hayden – two Kohala community members who were deeply involved in the statue restoration project. 

The space set-up included a mini-exhibit of photographs of community events, hula ki’i puppets, story boards, and art objects from Kohala.  There were also several questions posted around the room: 

  • What constitutes civic participation in the community?
  • Whose tradition is it anyway? 
  • What gets called art and what gets called culture?
  • Who owns the sculpture?  Who owns history?  Who owns the right to decide?

Marilyn Cristofori, Executive Director of the Hawaii Alliance for Arts Education, gave an introduction to help locate the project in the island chain of Hawaii.

Mary Tuti Baker showed an excerpt of a rough cut of her documentary video on the statue restoration, which explained the project and process.  This first clip started from the beginning and ended with the impending decision of whether to paint or gild the statue.  After some background and discussion, the concluding segment was shown.  Raylene and Sharon also offered a demonstration of hula ki’i – image puppets that tell stories, often with hidden meanings, and song.  The session was closed, according to protocol, with another chant.

Defining question of the project: 

How will the decision of how to restore the statue be made, and by whom?

History 
“People are interested in the moment in an object’s life when it’s being conserved... It’s a bridge to the past.”  - Glenn Wharton, conservator

Raylene:  At the time the sculpture was cast, the Hawaiian monarchy wanted to be recognized by the rest of the world.  So in the 1870s, they commissioned a statue of King Kamehameha I.  The first statue sunk in transit from France to Hawaii; in the meantime, a replacement was made.  The first one was recovered;  the “nicer” replacement was sent to the palace in Honolulu, while the corroded version was sent to Kohala, the birthplace of King Kamehameha.   The statue was installed in 1883.  It was painted all brown.  It stayed painted brown for a while, then the community started to add color (no one knows exactly when), painting the king’s cloak a bright yellow to make it look like the feathers, and adding red to the sash.  All the elders in the community know it as always having been painted, so that’s about 120 years.

Marilyn:  Glenn Wharton conserved the Kamehameha statue in Honolulu.  When he learned of the need for conservation of the Kohala statue, he approached HAAE, having been referred to us by local people.  Our board of directors kept Glenn’s offer to restore the sculpture on the shelf for 2 years.  We debated whether our organization should accept this project.  There was a lot of discussion.

Tuti:  It’s complicated – technically, the sculpture is owned by the state; an organization in Honolulu is supposed to have authority.  But when the statue was created, there was no state of Hawaii.  (So Honolulu is able to claim that they’re not responsible for the restoration of it.)

Raylene and Sharon discussed hula ki’i as a cultural expression:  image puppets that tell stories, often having hidden meanings.  In Hawaiian history, hula was sometimes a form of communication for  messages that otherwise couldn’t be expressed publicly or directly.  Many layers could be added to the story.  A hula ki’i might look wonderful and funny to the outside, but there may be very serious message. 

We did hula ki’i with all generations, including children from the Kamehameha pre-school, senior citizens and kupuna (elders), and members of Raylene’s hula halau (school). 

Raylene:  Skin tone seems to be something to be concerned with these days.  Most people in Hawaii are a combination of skin tones; so in painting the faces of the ki’i (puppets), we spent time talking about skin color.  Sometimes puppets would have multiple layers of skin paint to reflect the different skin tones in a family.  The eyes are important; we would ask in the making of the puppets, What do the eyes see?  What do the eyes learn?  Two hula ki’is were created for this project – the first story was, Who was Kamehameha? The second story was about the sculpture restoration.

Sharon:  The ADI grant enabled us to bring young people into the story.  From pre-schools to kupuna, there wasn’t anyone in the community who wasn’t involved.

Art or Culture?
“For me, it’s a really interesting job; for him, it’s an act of devotion.” — Glenn Wharton, referring to Nalani Cabrera, a Kohala resident and descendent of King Kamehameha invited to assist with the restoration.

From the Film:

  • Glenn:  I was astonished to see a bronze sculpture painted like that ... I was conflicted.  Would painting this statue be like painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa? ... I know the technical world; I don’t necessarily know the cultural world...
  • Sharon:  We all feel the statue is the embodiment of Kamehameha and the Hawaiian essence; it’s not an icon or symbol, it’s the real essence.  We’re honored and protected by it.

Discussion: 

Sharon:  Almost all of the Hawaiian families are descendents of Kamehameha.  Name and who are you is very important here. 

Raylene:  We know that some people think we’re worshipping the statue.  For many, this is ohana – great  grandpa.  When they talk to the statue, they’re talking to their ancestor ... That was important to communicate with Glenn.

Liz Lerman:  Art & the notion of ancestors:  the conservator brought in his ancestors by talking about his training.   Who has to do the translating? 

Raylene:  A question of this conference, the “utilization of culture:”  I’m not sure it’s the same context as I understand it to be.  Culture is a way that life proceeds; culture for me is a way of being and of life.  Hula ki’i was a tool for this project ... Often we are asked to present ourselves as performance, but that is not what it’s about.  You all have gifts of artistic value; I never looked upon myself as an artisan, but as a cultural practitioner.  That comes with responsibility.  The view of others often dictates whether it is considered culture or art.  I recognize it as culture; how is it that you recognize this as an art form?  How does that cause my world to expand?  The importance of the AND ... If we are all both artists and cultural practitioners, what is the responsibility of that? 

Process, Funding, and the Question of Democracy
“I’m one of those bridge people where I live.  There are issues of native rights ... We go to sleep each night on what is democracy ...” –  Sharon Hayden

From the Film:

  • Glenn: I, as an outsider, don’t feel I have the right to just come in and make a decision for the community ... I expected some Hawaiian process to be evoked to make this decision; consulting the kupuna or ho’oponopono.  But that was not the case...
  • Raylene:  Sometimes the desire of the community gets pushed to the side ...
    Boyd Bond (local historian and community organizer):  26 times they had to come up to this question, and 26 times they said “paint.”

The Vote

Raylene:  There are no elected officials in our community.  The closest elected officials are in Hilo. 

It was all about what happens internally within the community.

Sharon:  A concern for some was, did we really want the community’s opinion?  Kealoha, the man who had been taking care of the statue, was one of those who feared, what if the community votes to gild?

A high school student debate club organized a debate; each student took the opposite position from the one they held.  It was their idea in order to better understand the other side’s position.

Raylene:  Within Hawaii, a lot of issues came up.  Some said, That’s not a Hawaiian statue, what do I care about that?  Others said, That’s my kupuna!  Newcomers just wanted to fit in most of the time; they wanted to do what was right.  Many felt uncomfortable being part of the decision making because they were too new to the community or didn’t feel they had a right.

Marilyn:  The Aloha festival in fall 2000 was the first vote to get a preliminary sense.  Everyone was able to vote, including tourists and visitors and the vote came out differently then, with a high percentage of people interested in gilding.  The second time we put out opinion ballots (Nov 2001), after a year of the cultural activity (hula ki’i), Glenn’s discussions with community groups, the high school debate, etc., we put them in post office boxes to ensure it went to residents only.  The vote came back overwhelmingly to paint. 

Glenn [FROM THE FILM]:  It was important for the colors to be right on the statue ... We asked the community about colors ... (but) the vote was only between gold and paint, and that was deliberate.  The committee would decide the specifics of color choices.

Civic Dialogue and Cultural Context
“For us, we often had to say, that’s not how we do it here...” – Raylene Lancaster

  • What constitutes dialogue, civic dialogue or civic participation in different cultural contexts?
  • What are the tensions between indigenous or non-Western and Western approaches, and how do we reconcile those with a notion of democracy?
  • What are the cultural norms, expectations, or assumptions about communication and decision-making that have bearing on civic dialogue projects?

Raylene:  Discussion in Hawaiian culture takes a long time.  Skill as an orator, the ability to influence another to see things your way, is respected.

Marilyn:  Talk story is a central process.  Public meetings were imposed, in a way, by the ADI grant – by a kind of mainland, New England notion of civic dialogue based on the town hall model ... Talk story is a subtle, informal and hidden form of discussion that happens in grocery lines and on people’s back porches ...

Tuti:  Talk story has taken on a kind of formal process; in Kohala, if you want people to come and share, you tell them it’s a talk story session.

Sandy Agustin:  Story is non-western in its genesis.

Raylene:  Sometimes there are conditions imposed on a relationship when there is money tied to it ...  It was about a meeting of the mind and the heart and spirit.  We come forth first through the spirit; you know my intent.  At times the process can be a long one.  I discovered I’m willing to make the time; when the boxes have to be done by a certain time, “They” start stressing ... ADI presented certain parameters that needed to be acknowledged.  Just don’t structure me in a particular manner that is outside of my culture.

Marilyn:  As Raylene discussed, the responsibility of respecting culture – there may be a parallel in respecting democracy.  Often we take both for granted.

Economics and Cultural Tourism
“This town needs more than just a fresh coat of paint.  It’s hard to keep the economy going without selling out.” – Boyd Bond, Kohala historian & community organizer

Sharon:  In Hawaii, they sell the culture so much.  When you sell your culture, who owns it then? 

Marty Pottenger:  The distinction between selling culture and sharing culture

Sharon:  Kohala resists corporate sponsors all the time who want to put up banners at the festival.  So we never get listed in the flight magazine calendars, etc.

Honolulu doesn’t like that we just do what we want to do. 

Can’t we have one day of the year that isn’t commercial?  

Marilyn:  As a statewide agency, we got a grant that kept the integrity of the project, as opposed to having to look for corporate sponsorships.

Learnings and Outcomes 
“People need to know what the stories are, and then they will be able to take better care of the works of art in their communities.” – Glenn Wharton

“There was nothing I had to let go of, I just had to look at it another way to hold onto it ...”  - Raylene Lancaster

Tuti: In 1999, I got a call from Marilyn asking about documenting this process; I was drawn to this because my family is from Kohala.  Hope to air the documentary on PBS, on the mainland.

Raylene:  The second script will be turned into a coloring book and CD with the chants.  This will bring it to the next generation.  The funds will continue to help children.

Tuti:  A few years ago, a couple people in the film got involved in dealing with the drug abuse problem in Kohala.  There was no way for people to get treatment without leaving home.  A grassroots group went to legislature to establish a treatment center.

Raylene:  We’re amazed at the kind of people who live in Kohala. They have a caring for the place.  This is a story that shows capacity of the community ...