Measuring the Elements: A Lecture by Lilikalā Kame’eleihiwa
- Organizer: A/P/A Institute at NYU
- Venue: The Downstairs, La MaMa
- Address:
66 E 4th Street
New York, NY United States
Presented by Hālāwai. Cosponsored by the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, La MaMa, Safe Harbors Indigenous Arts, and Arts in a Changing America.
Recent research by faculty and students of the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa has revealed that there are a number of Hawaiian and Tahitian temples built in ancient times with one wall measuring 0˚ North. Such temples were used to track the movement of the sun through solstice and equinox, and ordered the worship of Akua or Elemental Gods. Dr. Lilikalā K. Kame’eleihiwa‘s talk will focus on how the sharing of this technology was made possible by Polynesian voyaging canoes like Hōkūleʻa.
Dr. Lilikalā K. Kame’eleihiwa is senior professor and the current director of the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. She is the lead professor in the field of Kumu Kahiki: Comparative Hawaiian and Polynesian Studies. Trained as a historian, she is also an expert in Hawaiian cultural traditions, and in the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, and has served as executive producer of the 2005 DVD Natives in New York, Seeking Justice at the United Nations, and as coscriptwriter of the 1993 award winning documentary An Act of War: The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation. Her books include Nā Wāhine Kapu: Sacred Hawaiian Women, He Mo’olelo Ka’ao o Kamapua’a: A Legendary Traditional of Kamapua’a, the Hawaiian Pig-God, and Native Land and Foreign Desires: Pehea Lā E Pono Ai?.
This event is being hosted in conjunction with the June 5 arrival of the Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hōkūle‘a to New York City—Lenape Territory—as a part of its worldwide voyage called Mālama Honua (to care for our earth). Learn more about the worldwide voyage and related NYC programs and events.