Traditions & Insights in Native Hawaiian Child-Rearing Practices
Dr. Carol Titcomb, MD
Thursday, May 21, 2015

Building on scholarship and knowledge of many sources including writings of Mary Kawena Pukui and discussions with Hawaiian elders, Dr. Carol Titcomb shares findings from her descriptive study about culturally-based child-rearing practices. Dr. Titcomb is a pediatrician who has practiced medicine in Wai‘anae, Waimānalo and Papakōlea. She conducted this study as part of a research fellowship at the University of Hawai‘i, School of Medicine’s Department of Native Hawaiian Health.

Traditional Hawaiian Practices of Hāpai and Hānau
Kai‘ulani Odom and Emerson Kihei Nahale, Kōkua Kalihi Valley
Thursday, March 5, 2015

The progression from pre-gestation to birth encompasses an array of physical and metaphysical responsibilities to ensure a pathway of health for child, mother and family. Knowledgeable Native Hawaiian cultural and clinical practitioners will provide insightful perspectives about traditional approaches to pregnancy and child birth and how families can be empowered to incorporate cultural practices into the birthing experience.

Bishop Museum Cultural Research Specialist and master lau hala weaver Marques Hanalei Marzan talks with Diane Ako about the new exhibit, Nani I Ka Hala, open from March 28 to July 27, 2015 in the Bishop Museum's Long Gallery. The exhibit explores the art, science, and cultural importance of the hala tree and showcases dozens of fine examples of this thriving art form.

Bishop Museum’s Traditions of the Pacific series brings an evening of story, sharing, and aloha that explores the artistic, cultural, and biological expressions of limu and kupe‘e with artists and cultural practitioners, Sig Zane, and his son, Kuha‘o Zane, from Keaukaha, Hilo, Island of Hawai‘i. Mahalo to the Queen’s Health Systems for their generous support.

Kahikinui, on the southeastern slopes of Maui's Haleakalā, remains one of the last places in the Hawaiian Islands where the landscape of an entire moku is preserved intact. Based on seventeen years of archaeological field research, Prof. Patrick Kirch tells the story of this 'āina malo'o, part of the greatest continuous zone of dryland planting in the archipelago. Based on his studies of thousands of house sites, heiau, and other vestiges of ancient life, Kirch traces the history of Kahikinui from the first arrival of Polynesians in the eleventh century A.D. to the final abandonment of the land at the end of the nineteenth century.

Observing the sky phenomena is the realm of the kilolani in the discipline of Papahulilani--clouds, winds, sun, stars and moon are among the prominent foci of this discipline. In the traditional Hawaiian world view, these atmospheric elements embody the pantheon of kino akua Hawai'i, and provide a fundamental function in ancestral memory still essential in the modern Hawaiian consciousness. The behavior of these members of the heavenly realm can be tracked across the cycles of day and night, the waxing and waning of the moon, and the procession of the sun in its seasonal arcs over the year. Learning the roughly 30 day moon cycle and the connection of these to the behavior of everything in the living universe around us is the topic of Kalei Nu'uhiwa's presentation, Kaulana Mahina.

Kukulu Hale Kahiko - the traditional method of building the Hawaiian house. Renowned Kuhikuhipu'uone (Master Architect) Francis "Palani" Sinenci of Hale Kuhikuhi gives an insightful and engaging presentation that details the methods of kukulu hale (building house). In addition, Kumu Palani highlights stories of the revival and reinvigoration of related protocols that contribute important elements to this traditional art.

Listen to Dr. Sam "'Ohu" Gon, senior scientist and cultural advisor at The Nature Conservancy of Hawai'i, give a thought-provoking lecture on the "footprint" left by the historical Hawaiian culture and its lasting mark on the Islands' ecosystems. Using archeological modeling and traditional knowledge sources including mo'olelo and oli, he reconstructs the pre-contact Hawaiian world as a series of maps, which unfold the story of the changing island landscapes that culminate in the world today.

HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports on an exhibition of exquisite Ni’ihau shell lei on view now at the Bishop Museum.

Listen to renowned conservation biologist and wildlife photographer, Dr. Robert Shallenberger, give an illuminating talk on our fine feathered friends and voyagers of the Hawaiian skies. Two dozen seabird species call Hawai'i home, while ranging widely across the Pacific Ocean and beyond. These birds are finely adapted to their terrestrial, aquatic and aerial environments. This lecture focuses on their natural history and their complex cultural connection with the people who share their home.