February 7, 2006
MEDIA CONTACT: Caroline Witherspoon
or Jocelyn Collado
Becker Communications
(808) 533-4165
6TH ANNUAL MARY KAWENA PUKUI PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL BRINGS NATIVE CULTURES TOGETHER
HONOLULU – Native Hawaiians, Native American, and Alaska Natives come together once again to present song, dance, music and storytelling at Bishop Museum ’s 6 th Annual Mary Kawena Pukui Festival of Performing Arts on Sunday, February 19 from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
The annual festival was founded in 2001 as a way to share Mary Kawena Pukui’s love of language and culture. Partnering with ECHO, Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations, the festival brings innovative programs that were collaboratively produced by five different regional cultural institutions to culturally diverse audiences. Staff members from the Bishop Museum in Hawai‘i, the Alaska Native Heritage Center and Inupiat Heritage Center in Alaska, and the New Bedford Whaling Museum and Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts make up the collection of storytellers and performers who present one of the festival’s highlights. Audiences are treated to a multi-cultural performance piece featuring Native Hawaiians, Wampanoag and Inupiat performers along with Yup’ik storytellers and singers each sharing stories of creation.
This year, Honolulu-based Tau Dance Theatre has collaborated with the storytellers in developing the dynamic piece, incorporating different kinds of movement to enhance the stories being performed. The end result is an exciting, interactive performance that speaks to all ages about our beginnings and our connections to the world around us. After the first stop in Hawai‘i, the performers will travel to Alaska and Massachusetts , performing for thousands of schoolchildren and a large public performance in each location.
“It is an honor to be able to welcome our native partners from afar, from Massachusetts and Alaska – to host them in our state, and to share their stories with thousands of school children and families,” said Noelle Kahanu, project manager of the festival at Bishop Museum . “It is an honor, equally, to travel across the country, sharing the stories of our Hawaiian people, to delight students with oli, mele and hula, to remind ourselves that we are all ‘na mamo e au i ke kai loa’, descendents of those who traveled the wide expanse of the sea.”
Another highlight of the 6 th Annual Mary Kawena Pukui Festival of Perfoming Arts will come from Native Hawaiian artist, Solomon Enos. With help from students from local charter school, Halau Lokahi, Enos will create a mural that tells a tale of creation and Mo‘oinanea. With paint, brushes, and over 50 square feet of canvas, a beautiful work of art will be created before the audience’s eyes. To further the experience, guest will be invited to participate in creating the piece, in hopes of gaining a greater appreciation for the value of laulima, working together. Festival-goers will also enjoy various interactive storytelling presentations, song and dance performances, hands-on workshops and children’s activities throughout the day.
Mary Kawena Pukui is perhaps the most renowned of Hawai‘i’s storytellers and collectors of lore. A famed translator, genealogist, kumu hula, and collector of stories and quotations, she helped write many of Hawai‘i’s most significant and widely used Hawaiian public resources, including the Hawaiian Language Dictionary and ‘Ōlelo No‘eau.
The 6 th Annual Mary Kawena Pukui Festival of Performing Arts is presented by Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations (ECHO). Admission to the festival is $3 for kama ‘āina and military personnel with I.D. Bishop Museum members and children 3 and under are free. For more information call 847-3511 or visit www.bishopmuseum.org.