Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 2, Number 9, 1 September 1985 — Hawaiian Quilter Gains National Recognition [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiian Quilter Gains National Recognition

Hawaiiaris and Hawaii have been honored for the second consecutive year with the naming of Meali'i Namahoe Richardson Kalama as winner of a National Heritage Fellowship Award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Kumu Hula Kau'i Zuttermeister was the first winner in 1984. Meali'i and 11 other recipients from 12 di(ferent states will be honored Sept. 13 in the nation's capitol. Hawaii's winner, a gifted Hawaiian quilter, plans to leave for Washing ton Sept. 10. She will be accompanied by her daughter-in-law, Julie Richardson. The Heritage winners will eaeh receive an award certificate and $5,000 from the federal arts agency during the formal ceremonies. The National Heritage Awards Program is open to exem plary master folk artists and artisans who are nominated by one or more citizens for this one-time only fellowship. Qualify ing criteria are authenticity, excellence and significance within a particular artistic tradition. Those nominated must have a record of on-going artistic accomplishment at a level whieh would make them worthy of national recognition. Selection of the fellowship recipients, from among those nominated, is by peer panel review. Meali'i, 76, has been quilting since she was 16. Thirty of her works ean be seen at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on the Big Island, eight are at the Maui Surf Hotel and one is on Queen Lili'uokalani's bed at Washington Plaee. She has countless more scattered throughout Hawaii and on the mainland. The twice-widowed Meali'i, who has been a lay pastor at Kawaiahao Church the last 10 years, was asked by Ka Wai Ola O OHA how she viewed quilting today as compared to earlier times. "The art of quilting has definitely changed today. It was usually done by kupuna in my day with other family members learning and doing. You might say it was a kind of family quilting bee back then," she explained. "Today," she continued, "the younger mothers are doing it . As a result, the style of patterns are also changing. There is

more creativeness in today's patterns as compared with the more historical in my time." Meali'i observed, too, that color combinations have become more varied as against basic colors. "I like the new

ideas in quilting because eaeh one creates differently. During my time, we had to get patterns whieh were used over and over. Today the patterns are softer instead of bold," she went on. "Then, too," Meali'i explained, "people didn't want to share their patterns and that's why quilting was not at its highest peak at the time." She feels quilting has now reached a very high level and will eonhnue to grow. Despite her fulltime work as a lay pastor, Meali'i still quilts. One of her current projects is making a quilt for the Halau Hula O Maiki. lt promises to be a beautiful production because of the intricate work involved in quilting the Hawaiian drum logo of the halau. lt is her gift to the halau bearing the name of the great late Kumu Hula Aunty Maiki Aiu. Meali'i said that because of the compactness of most homes today , she does her quilting on round hoops instead of the more traditional quilting frame using "horses." The latter method, she explained, is easier. This native Hawaiian (50 percent), whose full blooded Hawaiian mother married an Englishman, retired in 1975 as a complex supervisor after 26 years with the City and County of Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation. Before that she was a public school teacher. Meali'i also taught quilting at Papakolea where many of her former students are quilting today for self and family. The affable Meali'i interjected some humor during our conversation, noting that she comes from a family of 12 children, "six brown and six white." She jokingly remarked that two of the "brown" ones are on homestead land in Waimanalo "but when it eame to me I guess they thought I was too white." Quilting, she said is her hobby. "I always do some quilting before I go to bed," she remarked. Meali'i concluded by noting that prices of quilts have also changed to a great degree. "It used to cost about $25 for a quilt in the early days but now they go as high as $2,000 and even higher in some instances."

Meali'i Kalama is shown here working on one of her quilts. Stafe Foundation on Culture and the Art s Folk Arts Program photo by Lynn Martin.