Niho ʻOki Workshop with ʻŌlohe Umi Kai

Saturday, April 27, 2024 – 10 am to 1 pm
Location: Atherton Hālau
Registration fee: $50

Returning by popular demand, ‘Ōlohe Umi Kai will lead participants in creating niho ʻoki, Hawaiian shark tooth utility knives, traditionally used for food preparation, wood carving, hair cutting, stripping bark for kapa, and self-defense by makaʻāinana. This Living Culture workshop is approximately three hours long.

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.

*Please note that capacity is limited.

*No prior experience is necessary.

Gordon “Umi” Umialiloalahanauokalakaua King Kai is a master of Native Hawaiian arts, who creates objects used daily by his community in fishing, farming, making kapa, pounding poi, practicing hula and martial arts. Between graduating high school and completing a degree at Chaminade University, curiosity about Native Hawaiian culture led him to study under respected traditional arts masters of mele, hula, throw-net fishing, canoe building, weaponry and lua, Native Hawaiian martial arts. He was a student of kumu John Cummings, Kahauanu Lake, Makahiwa Lua, Wright Bowman, Sr., Dr. Yoshi Sinoto and ʻŌlohe Richard Paglinawan.

Known especially for the weapons he creates, Kai works in bone, wood, shark’s teeth and natural cordage employing pre-colonial techniques and tools. For over 40 years, he has presented his work locally and internationally through workshops, lectures, exhibitions and artist demonstrations. His work is featured in the collections of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Peabody-Essex Museum, the Captain Cook Museum and Kamehameha Schools.

Kai is an ’Ōlohe lua of the Pā Kui a Lua Association, Kaupoku of the ʻAha Kāne nonprofit created to better the lives of Native Hawaiian men through cultural practice, and a former President of Bishop Museum’s Association Council.

Photos Courtesy of Umi Kai

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