ABOUT

Puʻuhonua Society creates opportunities for Native Hawaiian and Hawaiʻi-based artists and cultural practitioners to express themselves and engage with and impact audiences. Puʻuhonua supports artists and makers who serve as translators, mediators, and amplifiers of social justice issues in the community. The organization builds capacity in Hawaiʻi’s contemporary arts ecosystem by providing opportunities to create and exhibit; access to work and exhibition space; access to mentorship and professional critique; and contemporary art and cultural learning to a wide audience in Hawaiʻi.

PROJECT

Puʻuhonua Society is partnering with 2021 SHIFT Awardee Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick (Kanaka ʻŌiwi) and collaborating curators to exhibit ʻAi Pōhaku, Stone Eaters at five venues on three college campuses within the University of Hawaiʻi system. Their SHIFT project ʻAi Pōhaku, Stone Eaters is a group exhibition centered on an intergenerational cohort of contemporary Native Hawaiian poets, carvers, writers, painters, filmmakers, photographers, publishers, musicians, educators, and organizers. Conscious of the harsh realities that many Native Hawaiian artists face, the exhibition will re-establish a relationship with University of Hawaiʻi, the largest statewide educational system, to present the works of over a dozen Hawaiian artists. Addressing a series of complex historical and present-day contestations over Native Hawaiian self-determination, the multi-part project of existing and commissioned works will gather perspectives on Native Hawaiian self-expression, starting with a renaissance of cultural activity in the 1970’s and continuing until today.