Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 1, 1 January 1994 — Hawaiʻi, Pacific island weaving artists brought together by recent conference [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiʻi, Pacific island weaving artists brought together by recent conference

by Jeff Clark It was the image of an olel Hawaiian village: a few dozen women - and a eouple of men - spread out on the grass weaving, chatting, creating. But it's an image one ean see today in contemporary Pacific island societies, and it's one some would like to see more often in modern Hawai'i. The weavers - from Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, the Marshall Islands and Hawai'i - were gathered as part of the 1993 Pacific Island Weaving Conference. The eonference, held in Wai'anae at the Pu'u Kāhea Conference Center, featured lectures, talk-story sessions, and weaving demonstrations. Also featured were displays of

various traditional woven goods. These included a Yap chief's burial shroud made of hanana and hibiscus fiber: the inspiration behind it is that death becomes a rip in the social fabric, and the exchange of textiles is a means to mend that rip. There were also ta'ovala, or

waist mats, traditionally worn in Tonga out of respect for the king and made out of the bark of the fana kio tree or crocheted wild hibiscus fiber; a penis sheath from New Guinea, made of vine fiber and gourd; hala wedding and sorcery bags from the Solomon Islands; a ceremonial scepter from Vanuatu made of hala, wood and mother-of-pearl; and fans from Tonga, Pohnpei, the Marshall Islands, the Cook Islands, and the Kosrae Islands. Patrick Horimoto of Hawai'i showed how he weaves the root of the 'ie'ie into baskets. He's currently working on an order placed by the Native Hawaiian Culture and Arts Program (NHCAP), the federally funded program administered by Bishop

Museum that was responsible for the building of the Mauloa and Hawai'i Loa canoes. Horimoto also displayed some of his other creations, including a fish trap, a "mushroom" helmet and an image of the war god Kūkā'ilimoku. Horimoto has a reputation as

the only master weaver working with 'ie'ie, and as a consequence was self-taught. "It took a long time to learn," he says. "Lots of people toy with it, but a lot tend to give up. It takes a lot of eommitment." Also on hand was Kawai Aona-Ueoka, who has been making kapa for nine years, and who said Hawaiians are just rediscovering the art. A laek of materials has been her main obstacle: after spending three years cultivating a patch of wauke, when she was ready to pound its bark she realized she had no pounding tools. So she talked some City & County tree trimmers into supplying her branches that she later fashioned into kapa beaters. Wauke, though, is her biggest

need. The bark of other trees, whieh are used by some South Pacific peoples, "just don't spread like the wauke," she eomplained. These days, however, she is working on a wauke project in Kahana Valley with one of the state park lessees, Jose Garceta. "You have to have a green thumb to get the roots started," she laughed. "First put it in a pot and let it get strong, then replant." Because of slugs and snails - "it's so 'ono to those animals" — the survival rate is only 25 percent. Aona-Ueoka is another practitioner who has ben-

efitted from NHCAP funds, whieh have helped her fill the gap left "between trying to make a living and trying to revive a lost art." The conference was presented by the Immigrant Center (formerly the Kalihi-Pālama Immigrant Service Center) and coordinated by Deacon Ritterbush, Ph.D., longtime prineipal humanities scholar at the East-West Center and now a University of Hawai'i professor. "I think we have an industry here. What we need is the state to give seed money" to get that industry off the ground, says Ritterbush, a Pacific specialist who envisions woven mats replacing carpets on the floors of America and the world. She talks about such concepts as "building on the indigenous good," and says communities should look at their strengths and build on them. For example, people should look at woven Hawaiian hats in the light of eeonomics, not just culture. 'Awa could be sold to pharmaceutical companies and poi could be mass-produced for baby food, she says excitedly: "Why wait

for Gerber?" Woven goods could be a very hot item internationally because they're a folk art, they're natural, and they're produced in an environmentally friendly manner, Ritterbush says, her enthusiasm building. Her vision is of a

"Pacific Institute of Fiber Arts" with ftber farms on eaeh island. The state has offered 20 acres of land for fiber cultivation on the Hāmākua Coast, where sugar is going out of production, she says, before asking, "but where's the seed money?" In her vision, Hawai'i, with its eommunieations and marketing resources, would create the market and islanders in other parts of the Pacific would do the weaving. OHA, through its eeonomie development division and culture office, provided $2,468 to help sponsor the conference. Eeonomie development officer Linda Colburn said the funds

went to "defray the cost of native Hawaiian conference participants, including some honoraria, accommodations, travel, and supplies. I think it's fairly consistent with our objectives of fostering opportunity to support native craft forms and disseminating

information on valuable Hawaiian practices." Hawaiian participation included three O'ahu weavers and 10 from the neighbor islands. OHA funds also provided honoraria of $50 for six lecturers. Other sponsors included the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the Hawai'i Committee for the Humanities, the Department of Business, Eeonomie Development and Tourism, NHCAP, Finance Factors, Bank of Hawai'i, and PVT, ine.

Patrick Horimoto shows Loretta Hera how he weaves 'ie'ie. Photo by Jeff Clark

Patrick Horimoto poses with his 'ie'ie creation of the war god Kūkā'ilimoku. Photo by Jeff Clark

Elizabeth Lee weaves makaloa. Photo by Jeff Clark

Louise Kekahuna, left, shares some of her knowledge with Linda Hee of the Bishop Museum conservation laboratory. Photo by Jeff Clark