ʻIe Holo Ē

September 6, 2024-December 20, 2024
Location: Hawaiian & Pacific Collection

Kumu Hula Piʻilaniwahine Smith shares a part of her intimate journey to kūkulu kuahu hula (establishing her hula altar) where she dedicated one year of her life to weaving with ʻieʻie (Freycinetia arborea). She relied on the wisdom of Indigenous methods of traditional knowledge such as dreams, chants, ceremony, and he alo a he alo (face to face engagement) to guide her weaving. ʻIe holo ē, is a visual and functional material culture account of Piʻilaniwahine’s lifelong conversation with her ancestral guides, producing traditional hīnaʻi (baskets and traps) featured in this exhibit. The culmination of her focus called forth the manifestation of perhaps the only known kiʻi akua hulu manu (woven feathered deity) in modern times to be created for traditional and sacred purposes. The name of this exhibit comes from a saying of Hiʻiakaikapoliopele (the youngest sister of Pele), meaning to elevate and expand like that of the ʻieʻie, to reply and proceed. ʻIe holo ē reclaims Indigenous space of its people to a sacred place and practice, and honors the wahine akua (female deities), Hiʻiakamālamalamapiʻopiʻookalāpukakakahiaka and Laka (deity of hula), to which Piʻilaniwahine is a devotee.