Kapaemahu Speaker Series | Hidden in Plain Sight: The History of The Healer Stones of Kapaemahu in a Changing Waikīkī

Friday, July 8, 2022
6-7:30 p.m.
Atherton Hālau & Livestreamed via Zoom
*Included in Museum After Hours Admission

To register for the in-person event click the orange in-person registration button.
The conversation will be livestreamed on Youtube Live. To tune in virtually, please click the below link at the start of the event.

Live YouTube Link

This program is part of a five-part speaker series that harnesses community discourse around The Healer of Stones of Kapaemahu exhibition on view in Bishop Museum’s Castle Memorial Building through Oct. 16, 2022. By bringing together cultural practitioners, scholars, artists, and community organizers, the program aims to cultivate deeper understanding of the exhibition’s central themes of gender diversity, Native Hawaiian health, and the power of monuments.

These talks will take place in person at Bishop Museum’s Atherton Hālau and will be streamed live for virtual participation. To kick off the series, join us for a Museum After Hours Pau Hana presentation with the exhibition curators to discuss the historical findings and artistic choices behind The Healer Stones of Kapaemahu. The conversation will include new details about the first written version of the moʻolelo, its loss, its rediscovery deep in a library archive, and its restoration—all in the context of the rise of tourism, militarization, and the erosion of Hawaiian cultural identity throughout the 20th century.

Speakers include:

• Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, co-curator, Kanaka Maoli teacher, cultural practitioner, and community leader
• Dean Hamer, co-curator and Emmy and GLAAD media award-winning filmmaker
• Joe Wilson, co-curator, Emmy award-winning filmmaker, community advocate
• DeSoto Brown, co-curator and Bishop Museum Historian and Curator of the Archives

Book Signing

da Shop and Bess Press will be hosting an exclusive book signing for the newly released children’s book “Kapaemahu.” Based on the Academy Award contending-short film of the same name, “Kapaemahu,” by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson, and illustrated by Daniel Sousa, tells the Native Hawaiian legend of four extraordinary individuals of dual male and female spirit, or māhū, who brought healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaii.

On the night of the Museum After Hours event, attendees will be able to purchase and have books signed by author Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu and co-creators, Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer.

*This kickoff panel is featured as a Museum After Hours Pau Hana presentation. Please note that Museum After Hours is a campus-wide event from 5:30 – 9 p.m. The Pau Hana presentation will take place in Bishop Museum’s Atherton Hālau from 6 – 7:30 p.m.

In order to attend in person and enjoy the full offerings of Museum After Hours, guests will need to purchase admission using the Registration button. For those who wish to attend virtually via zoom, register using the Virtual Registration button.

The Kapaemahu Program Series is generously supported by McInerny Foundation, Bank of Hawaii, Trustee.

Event cover Image credit:
Courtesy of “The Healer Stones of Kapaemahu”