AnthroNotes Volume 25 No. 2 Fall 2004HAWAIIAN TREASURES AT THESMITHSONIAN INSTITUTIONby Adrienne L. Kaeppler
Hawaiian Treasures, NH Mea Makamae O Hawai'i,an exhibit featuring Hawaiian historic objects,photographs, and works of art, opened at the NationalMuseum of Natural History on September 22, closingMarch 27, 2005. This exhibition honors Hawaiians asNative Americans and complements the September 22opening of the National Museum of American Indian(NMAI), which does not have a collection of Hawaiianobjects. The Smithsonian Institution has been the recipi-ent of Hawaiian materials since its inception as the Na-tional Museum of the United States in 1858. Many ofthese pieces came as important individual gifts, and oth-ers were collected during major exploring expeditions.The 1840 United States Exploring Expedition underCaptain Charles Wilkes brought back numerous piecesof barkcloth, ornaments, stone tools, and gourd bowls.Nathaniel B. Emerson's collection for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, held in Seattle, Washington, in 1909,accumulated musical instruments, puppets, and manyitems of daily life.Hawaiian Treasures was organized in consultationwith the four Royal Societies of Hawai'i—benevolentsocieties that focus on Hawaiians and their identity inthe modern world. This short essay focuses on threeimportant sections of the Hawaiian Treasures exhibit—
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canoe, featherwork, and bowls.The Queen Kapi'olani CanoeThe centerpiece of Hawaiian Treasures'^ the 19-foot Ha-waiian outrigger canoe given to the Smithsonian byQueen Kapi'olani in 1887. It is the oldest documentedexisting Hawaiian canoe in the world and underwent ex-tensive conservation for this exhibition.In May, 1887, Hawaiian Queen Kapi'olani andPrincess Lili'uokalani stopped in Washington, D. C. ontheir way to London to attend the Jubilee of QueenVictoria of England. During their visit, the Queen andPrincess met with President and Mrs. Cleveland at theWhite House and visited the Smithsonian's NationalMuseum of the United States. Upon her return to Hawai'i,Queen Kapi'olani gave to the National Museum "a ca-
HBHBHHHHHMMHHHHRH^BMHil^BHiHMBHBHBHIMHHKapi'olani canoe with its sail when it arrived at the Smithsonian.Photo: National Anthropological Archives.
noe similar to those in use by the Native Hawaiians manyyears ago." The canoe was sent via steamer ship to theCustoms House in San Francisco, and arrived in Wash-ington, via the Alaskan Commercial Company in Janu-ary, 1888.When Queen Kapi'olani sent this fishing canoeto the Smithsonian, it was already quite old. A hole at thebottom of the canoe suggests that it had hit a reef andwould have been difficult to repair. The canoe has itsoriginal mat sail, but because of the sail's fragility, it isnot exhibited. A wood engraving from a daguerreotypein the publication Wide West ion 17 August 1856 illus-trates a very similar canoe.
FeatherworkFeather cloaks and capes, known as 'ahu'ula (red shoul-der garments), are the most spectacular of all objects ofHawaiian manufacture. Depending on length and kindsof feathers, 'ahu'u/awete visual symbols of prestige andpower.
'Ahu'ula were composed of a backing of o/onafiber, made by a technique similar to making fishnets,and covered with natural colored feathers from a variety'of forest birds. The designs, usually crescents and tri-angles, were created by tying small groups of feathers tothe backing. The largest cloaks required some half-mil-lion feathers.Traditionally, feather cloaks and capes were wornby male chiefs in sacred or dangerous situations, such as
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warfare, when cloaks of losing chiefs were taken as battleprizes. The feather cloak of Kekuaokalani on exhibit wasworn in the 1819 battle between Liholiho (KamehamehaII) and Kekuaokalani, the keeper of the war godKuka'ilimoku. Kekuaokalani was killed in this batde andhis cloak was taken as a batde prize by Kamehameha II.The cloak was given to Commodore John H. Aulick, ofthe US Navy, in 1841 by Kamehameha III. The cloakhas been in the Smithsonian since 1869, given by Com-modore Aulick's descendants.During the 19th century, chiefs wore featheredcloaks and capes on ceremonial occasions and for eventssuch as funerals of other chiefs and as visual expres-sions of status and prestige. Cloaks and capes were madefor specific individuals and it is unlikely that they wouldbe worn by others because of the prohibition againstwearing clothing that had touched the body of someone
else, especially the body of a high chief. Individuals whodid not respect clothing prohibitions were consideredcareless and were vulnerable to sorcery. Today, mostfeatherwork is in museums for safekeeping of these trea-sures that are associated with Hawaiian identity and therenaissance of Hawaiian art.
King Kalakaua, Bowls, and Hale Naua SocietyDavid Kalakaua, of the Keawe-a-Heulu chiefly line, waselected King of Hawai'i in 1874 and quickly took on thetrappings of a European monarch. 'Iolani Palace was builtin Honolulu and a belated coronation, with crowns or-dered from England, was held in 1883.Following the lead of an earlier genealogical so-ciety called "Hale Naua," Kalakaua combined earlierHawaiian traditions with rituals derived from the Ma-sonic Order, of which he was a member, in an effort torevitalize Hawaiian society. On ritual occasions youngmen wore replicas of traditional feather capes and mem-bers of the Hale Naua kept a series of symbolic ob-jects—including small pieces of barkcloth, a hook orna-ment, and a ball of twine—in specially made coveredwooden bowls.King Kalakaua was particularly interested inbowls and amassed a large collection. On his fiftieth birth-day in 1 886, King Kalakaua received more than 200 bowlsfrom his admirers. These were marked with a specialmonogram of a crown and a forward and backward K.
Kekuaokalanis cloak. The exhibit also includesfivefeather capes.Two of these bowls in Hawaiian Treasures were passed inthe Prince David Kawananakoa line to Princess AbigailW. Kawananakoa, who left them to the Smithsonian inher will in 1947.Many of the exhibition objects are no longer indaily use and present-day Hawaiians marvel over the so-phisticated tools and techniques employed in their fabri-cation. Using stone tools, animal skin, feathers, and teeth,wood and fibers from various plants, Hawaiians madeintricate wood and stone sculptures, clothing, ornaments,musical instruments, bowls, and tools. Each object is trea-sured because of its beauty as well as its individual his-tory and the genealogy of individuals who once ownedand used it. The Smithsonian's Hawaiian objects havebecome treasures and are an invaluable resource for thoseinterested in traditional knowledge and material culture.Through these treasures Hawaiians feel they are "recon-necting with their ancestors" and that Hawaiian culturaland ethnic identity are linked with museum collections.
Adrienne Kaeppler is curator of Oceanic ethnology and curatorof "Hawaiian Treasures.
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Covered bowl that belonged to King Kalakaua
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