Lei Hulu Humupapa Workshop Series with Kawika Lum-Nelmida

Saturday, April 13, 2024 – 10 am to 12 pm
Saturday, May 4, 2024 – 10 am to 12 pm
Location: Gulab and Indru Watumull Atrium of Hawaiian Hall
Registration fee: $75

Returning by popular demand, hulu practitioner Kawika Lum-Nelmida will lead participants in the art of creating Lei Humupapa in a three-part Living Culture workshop series. A more contemporary style of Hawaiian feather work, Humupapa involves a “flat stitch” technique of hand-sewing feathers to a flat base surface; hat bands are a primary example of this style. Participate in three workshop sessions to complete this style of lei hulu. In the first session, learn how to prepare your feathers from an intact bird pelt to be provided by Bishop Museum as part of your registration. In the second session, learn how to start your lei humupapa hat band. This schedule allows time for participants to progress on their hulu work between sessions, so the focus of the third session will be completing their lei humupapa.

The Living Culture Program brings together community audiences with cultural practitioners who have devoted their lives to the preservation and vitality of their respective cultural art forms. By inviting practitioners to tell their own stories and share their skills, we mālama the rich diversity within Hawaiian culture. The program strives to connect living and dynamic ways of knowing and being with the materials and physical manifestations of art, science, history, nature, and culture. These public programs honor the knowledge bearers in our community who maintain and perpetuate the cherished insights and processes of our kūpuna.

*Included in the registration fee is a material kit with an intact pelt provided by the Museum
*Please note that capacity is limited and participating in this program is a three-session commitment on the dates listed above.
*No prior featherwork experience is necessary.

Kawika Lum-Nelmida is a hulu (feather) artist from Pūpūkea, Oʻahu. He started learning about hulu from Paulette Kahalepuna in 1997 at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. While at the University of Hawaiʻi, he studied Natural Environment and Fiber Arts within the Hawaiian Studies program, and graduated with a Bachelors of Arts in 2001. Kawika has been an active artist participant in MAMo: Maoli Arts Movement (MAMo) since 2012, and in 2013, was awarded a Master’s Apprenticeship through the Hawaiʻi State Foundation in the Culture and the Arts with his hulu master, Paulette Kahalepuna. Under this apprenticeship, Kawika studied Hawaiian feather work in the forms of lei (adornment), kahili (feather standard), ʻahu ʻula (cape), and mahiole (helmets). Kawika is officially Aunty Paulette’s last apprentice – as a kumu hulu, he offers classes to uphold the high standards and value systems that his kumu impressed upon him. Kawika has studied works from traditional materials, and how to use, cultivate, and preserve these materials. He also uses modern materials with traditional practices to create contemporary art pieces. Kawika recently ventured into clothing design and has been featured in the MAMo Wearable Art Show. Kawika Lum-Nelmida was selected as a United States Artist Fellow for 2021.

Photos Courtesy of Kawika Lum-Nelmida

This program is supported by the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority’s Kūkulu Ola Program administered by the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation.