About this Exhibition: Featuring artists and practitioners from across the Pae ʻĀina and the Continent, I Mana Ka Moʻomoʻo honors kapa making as a deeply transformative practice—one that reclaims ʻike kūpuna (ancestral knowledge), restores connection to ʻāina (land), and realigns practitioners with the natural cycles and seasons of life.
More than barkcloth, kapa is a living conduit between ancestors and descendants, a practice that invokes spirit, ceremony, and memory. Each step—from growing wauke to pounding its fibers and imprinting designs and patterns—embodies a conscious return to a worldview rooted in reciprocity, relationship, and care.
This practice challenges the transactional, extractive systems that dominate contemporary life. In its intentional pace and reverence, kapa making stands as an act of defiance against colonial erasure and capitalist urgency. It is through this work—tedious, physical, sacred—that practitioners affirm the continuity of culture and the enduring presence of Hawaiian ways of being.
I Mana Ka Moʻomoʻo brings together the work of artists and practitioners, Maile Andrade, Kamalu du Preez, Kanani Enos, Puakea Forester, Hina Puamohala Kneubuhl, and Lehuauakea—artists whose practices embody resistance, resilience, and renewal.
Held in conjunction with the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival, the exhibition includes an opening reception, a presentation on moʻolelo kapa, demonstrations, and a panel discussion centering the voices and visions of these contemporary cultural practitioners.
Exhibiting Artists: Maile Andrade, Kamalu du Preez, Kanani Enos, Puakea Forester, Hina Puamohala Kneubuhl, and Lehuauakea
IMPORTANT DATES
- Exhibition on View: October 25 – December 13, 2025
- Opening Reception: Saturday, October 25 from 5:00 – 7:00pm
- Moʻolelo Kapa with Puakea Forester: Saturday, November 8 from 10:00am – 12:00pm
- Kona Coffee Cultural Workshops & Demos: Saturday, November 15 from 10:00am – 2:00pm
- All About Wauke! Artist x Farmer Talk Story and Potluck: Sunday, November 16 from 10:00am – 1:00pm
Featured artwork: Hina Puamohala Kneubuhl, Kūlua (detail), Kapa and natural pigments, 2024
Mahalo Nui Loa: This exhibition and programs are made possible by the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the County of Hawaiʻi Waiwai Grant, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Hiroaki Elaine & Lawrence Kono Foundation, Hōlualoa Inn, and our community of individual donors.
