Living Culture Workshop Series

Lei Kāmoe Kipona with Kawika Lum-Nelmida
Four Sessions

Saturday, April 18, 2026, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 2, 2026, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 16, 2026, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 13, 2026, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Atherton Hālau
Registration fee: $100*

Returning by popular demand, master hulu practitioner Kawika Lum-Nelmida will lead participants in the art of creating Lei Kāmoe in a four-part Living Culture workshop series. Kāmoe is a featherwork technique where feathers are laid down smoothly in overlapping rows so they kāmoe, or lie flat. In lei-making traditions, kipona refers to the incorporation of materials of varying color and texture to create a distinct design. Participate in four workshop sessions to create your own lei kāmoe, expressing your own signature design.

Previous hulu working experience is required.

In the first session, Lum-Nelmida will share his perspectives on creating unique designs through hulu work; then, participants will conceive their own designs, select hulu befitting their design and start preparing their hulu. In the second session, participants will start their lei kāmoe kipona. This schedule allows time for participants to progress on their hulu work between sessions. The focus of the third session will be troubleshooting as participants progress on their lei and their design develops. In the fourth session, participants will complete their lei kāmoe kipona.

*Included in the registration fee is a material kit and a diverse selection of hulu, allowing each participant to choose the feathers that best bring their unique design to life.

Bishop Museum’s 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.

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