Wahine Builders Present in Aotearoa
Donation protected
Aloha,
We, Kara Nalani (Henderson) Tukuafu and Tiana Malina Henderson would like to thank all of you who are supporting us in whatever way possible be it by donating or sending us aloha and pule. Below is our funding proposal, Conference Abstract and Art Piece Explanation. Again, Mahalo nui loa!!
Funding Proposal:
Aloha,
My name is Kara Nalani (Henderson) Tukuafu. I’m writing this letter as an Alaka’i in Halau Hale Kuhi Kuhi a program under Holani Hana Inc. that focuses on the perpetuation of Hale building throughout the state. This program, as you may already know, is directed by Hana’s own Francis Palani Sinenci, and is the only one of it’s kind. We are a halau of 40 members, with 8 alaka’i who guide and teach 4 haumana each. Our halau is extremely unique, spanning across all of the Pae ‘Aina ‘O Hawai’i Nei on the islands of Maui, Moloka'i, Hawaii, Kauai, and Oahu.
When Uncle Francis designated me as one of his Alaka’i he gave me the special task to find and teach 4 haumana of my own, with the added instruction that they needed to be wahine (women). After hand picking my haumana I have witnessed strength, dedication, courage, patience and transcendence in each of them. Together we are learning that hale building is a cultural practice that leads to becoming our better selves. Within the process of digging, carving, stacking, tying, and thatching we are granted insight from the knowledge of our ancestors, filling these tasks with meaning and purpose.
While working we often talk story about what we’re learning, and the topic of being a wahine often arises among us. Hale building can be an extremely male oriented job, but we have found together that there is room for both gender roles on every hale. For example, symbolically there is ku and there is hina on almost every knot and post fitting on the hale, granting everything an amazing amount of balance.
My sister (Tiana) and I had our first opportunity to turn these discussions into creative expression at an art exhibit in Honolulu last year about the impact of colonialism on Hawaii with our art piece "Pehea kou piko". It’s because of this art exhibit that we were asked to apply for the Pacific Arts Association XII International Symposium held in New Zealand March 14-17, 2016. The symposium is presented over 4 days and scheduled between Polyfest and Pasifika Festival (March 12-13, 2016) : two of the largest Pacific cultural offerings in the Southern Hemisphere. The symposium will present a wide range of ideas and topics to provoke discussion and encourage exchange, which, after only 20 years of practicing hale building, would be extremely beneficial.
We applied in the beginning of November and heard back from them two weeks later that we were selected to present! This is a tremendous honor and thus begins the task of finding the funds to go and preparing ourselves for presentation. The presentations alone will be an extremely educational experience for us, and the first time that hale builders will present at this level. I also believe the amount of work we are putting into preparing for our trip will continue to teach us valuable life lessons, and bring us home with even greater “ike” then we would have known without the experience of exchange.
We will need:
1. Airfare
2. Room and Board
3. Conference Fees
Mahalo Nunui
Abstract:
Hawaiian House Construction in Modern Hawai’i
Kara Nalani Henderson Tukuafu
Kanaka Maoli Hawaiian
Tiana Henderson
Kanaka Maoli Hawaiian
We are the hanai (adopted, cherished, cared for) daughters of kuhikuhi pu‘uone (someone who understands land, wind, weather and house construction) Francis Palani Sinenci. As we’ve worked side by side with him over the last few years, the Hawaiian hale (house) building practice has spoken to our hearts in ways that shape the soul. In summary of our lessons learned we noticed that hale is a reflection of the builder, just as art is a reflection of the artist. Perhaps this is why the names of different parts of the hale are body parts of kanaka Maoli (original person, native Hawaiian). Hale building reveals all the attributes of your truest self. Are you patient? Are you kind? Are you diligent? And the hale will speak to the heart if you’re willing to listen. Are my walls strong? Are my lashings tight? Are there voids that need to be filled? The wood will force you to chip away at the exterior bark of your own life as you chip inch-by-inch, hour-by-hour from every piece of lumber. New commitments are made through thousands of knots; knots that cause us to stand firm in our commitment to support each other. The hale beckons us to consider how to create safety and begs us to commit to living sustainably.
In the hale there are many symbols, but the symbol we consider most, as wahine, is how the hale represents safety. A hale will render safety from the elements at the most basic level, but when considered carefully it can also render emotional, spiritual, and cultural safety. As kanaka Maoli, we have inherited the kuleana (responsibility, obligation, intention) to live with aloha, even in occupied spaces. Hawaiian language, cultural practices, family units, and land have been held out of reach, and until we are capable of decolonizing ourselves by creating safe places, we cannot be capable of reclaiming other parts of our lives. The hale building process is creating awareness, and where this awareness leads is the process that’s most meaningful. Here is where our artistic practice lives, breathes and finds expression.
Art piece Explanation:
Pehea kou piko?
Pehea kou piko? was a question posed by a kolohe smiling kupuna. I (Tiana) touched my piko and saidmaika’i and she then bellowed a boisterous laugh. When I discovered the kaona of her question referred to my reproductive organs I laughed too! Pehea kou piko asks the question: How is your naval/ reproductive parts/womb? In this art piece we are referring to the cultural womb. Because we are women hale builders - wahine kuhi kuhi - this piece expresses, through an empty kohe, the cultural womb of today within the medium of hale building materials. It expresses our experience of trauma, loss, and an inability to reproduce deep indigenous knowing. It also begs us to consider which piko was cut, and signals how to re-attach them. It challenges us to ponder and explore the exterior clues left for us to find and fill with meaning. WE are the kohe being restored. WE are the life in our own womb.
-Tiana Malina Henderson and Karalyn Nalani Henderson, Artists
We, Kara Nalani (Henderson) Tukuafu and Tiana Malina Henderson would like to thank all of you who are supporting us in whatever way possible be it by donating or sending us aloha and pule. Below is our funding proposal, Conference Abstract and Art Piece Explanation. Again, Mahalo nui loa!!
Funding Proposal:
Aloha,
My name is Kara Nalani (Henderson) Tukuafu. I’m writing this letter as an Alaka’i in Halau Hale Kuhi Kuhi a program under Holani Hana Inc. that focuses on the perpetuation of Hale building throughout the state. This program, as you may already know, is directed by Hana’s own Francis Palani Sinenci, and is the only one of it’s kind. We are a halau of 40 members, with 8 alaka’i who guide and teach 4 haumana each. Our halau is extremely unique, spanning across all of the Pae ‘Aina ‘O Hawai’i Nei on the islands of Maui, Moloka'i, Hawaii, Kauai, and Oahu.
When Uncle Francis designated me as one of his Alaka’i he gave me the special task to find and teach 4 haumana of my own, with the added instruction that they needed to be wahine (women). After hand picking my haumana I have witnessed strength, dedication, courage, patience and transcendence in each of them. Together we are learning that hale building is a cultural practice that leads to becoming our better selves. Within the process of digging, carving, stacking, tying, and thatching we are granted insight from the knowledge of our ancestors, filling these tasks with meaning and purpose.
While working we often talk story about what we’re learning, and the topic of being a wahine often arises among us. Hale building can be an extremely male oriented job, but we have found together that there is room for both gender roles on every hale. For example, symbolically there is ku and there is hina on almost every knot and post fitting on the hale, granting everything an amazing amount of balance.
My sister (Tiana) and I had our first opportunity to turn these discussions into creative expression at an art exhibit in Honolulu last year about the impact of colonialism on Hawaii with our art piece "Pehea kou piko". It’s because of this art exhibit that we were asked to apply for the Pacific Arts Association XII International Symposium held in New Zealand March 14-17, 2016. The symposium is presented over 4 days and scheduled between Polyfest and Pasifika Festival (March 12-13, 2016) : two of the largest Pacific cultural offerings in the Southern Hemisphere. The symposium will present a wide range of ideas and topics to provoke discussion and encourage exchange, which, after only 20 years of practicing hale building, would be extremely beneficial.
We applied in the beginning of November and heard back from them two weeks later that we were selected to present! This is a tremendous honor and thus begins the task of finding the funds to go and preparing ourselves for presentation. The presentations alone will be an extremely educational experience for us, and the first time that hale builders will present at this level. I also believe the amount of work we are putting into preparing for our trip will continue to teach us valuable life lessons, and bring us home with even greater “ike” then we would have known without the experience of exchange.
We will need:
1. Airfare
2. Room and Board
3. Conference Fees
Mahalo Nunui
Abstract:
Hawaiian House Construction in Modern Hawai’i
Kara Nalani Henderson Tukuafu
Kanaka Maoli Hawaiian
Tiana Henderson
Kanaka Maoli Hawaiian
We are the hanai (adopted, cherished, cared for) daughters of kuhikuhi pu‘uone (someone who understands land, wind, weather and house construction) Francis Palani Sinenci. As we’ve worked side by side with him over the last few years, the Hawaiian hale (house) building practice has spoken to our hearts in ways that shape the soul. In summary of our lessons learned we noticed that hale is a reflection of the builder, just as art is a reflection of the artist. Perhaps this is why the names of different parts of the hale are body parts of kanaka Maoli (original person, native Hawaiian). Hale building reveals all the attributes of your truest self. Are you patient? Are you kind? Are you diligent? And the hale will speak to the heart if you’re willing to listen. Are my walls strong? Are my lashings tight? Are there voids that need to be filled? The wood will force you to chip away at the exterior bark of your own life as you chip inch-by-inch, hour-by-hour from every piece of lumber. New commitments are made through thousands of knots; knots that cause us to stand firm in our commitment to support each other. The hale beckons us to consider how to create safety and begs us to commit to living sustainably.
In the hale there are many symbols, but the symbol we consider most, as wahine, is how the hale represents safety. A hale will render safety from the elements at the most basic level, but when considered carefully it can also render emotional, spiritual, and cultural safety. As kanaka Maoli, we have inherited the kuleana (responsibility, obligation, intention) to live with aloha, even in occupied spaces. Hawaiian language, cultural practices, family units, and land have been held out of reach, and until we are capable of decolonizing ourselves by creating safe places, we cannot be capable of reclaiming other parts of our lives. The hale building process is creating awareness, and where this awareness leads is the process that’s most meaningful. Here is where our artistic practice lives, breathes and finds expression.
Art piece Explanation:
Pehea kou piko?
Pehea kou piko? was a question posed by a kolohe smiling kupuna. I (Tiana) touched my piko and saidmaika’i and she then bellowed a boisterous laugh. When I discovered the kaona of her question referred to my reproductive organs I laughed too! Pehea kou piko asks the question: How is your naval/ reproductive parts/womb? In this art piece we are referring to the cultural womb. Because we are women hale builders - wahine kuhi kuhi - this piece expresses, through an empty kohe, the cultural womb of today within the medium of hale building materials. It expresses our experience of trauma, loss, and an inability to reproduce deep indigenous knowing. It also begs us to consider which piko was cut, and signals how to re-attach them. It challenges us to ponder and explore the exterior clues left for us to find and fill with meaning. WE are the kohe being restored. WE are the life in our own womb.
-Tiana Malina Henderson and Karalyn Nalani Henderson, Artists
Organizer
Tee Henderson
Organizer
Hana, HI