Kumu Humuhumu

02/02/2026

To all my Stitchers out there… Fun to follow! 🪡🪡🪡🪡🪡🧵🧵🧵🧵

08/13/2025

Brilliant!

06/12/2025

Nailed it!!
❤️🌺👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

12/06/2024

Register now!!!

08/04/2024

This was my Kapa Woodworking week….note the mess😂😎💪🏼🪵✌🏼

04/24/2024

LEARN TO SEW!!💪🏼🥰🌺

04/19/2024

Make it work!

03/09/2024

02/11/2024

Pounding kapa at Pu’ukoholā National Historic Site, Moku o Keawe🌺

01/17/2024

From kitsch to cool, ride the waves of undulating popularity of a tropical fashion statement

01/09/2024

Happy ! Bishop Museum's Ethnology Department helps care for some of the Museum’s treasured cultural resources.

Makahiki is one of the most significant seasonal events in Hawaiʻi, occurring during the winter period of Hoʻoilo. Connected to the rising of Makaliʻi (the Pleiades constellation), Makahiki traditions are continued to this day by communities across the archipelago. Competitions of physical prowess, games of skill, and p**e (prayers) for abundance, life, and healing are all part of observances in Hawaiʻi. Some particularly iconic traditions are the ceremonial circuits of the islands made by community members and accompanied by distinctive kiʻi (carved images) called akua loa representing the deity Lonomakua.

Here at Bishop Museum, we recognize Makahiki and the winter months of our year with the pictured display. To the left stands an image of Kū, symbolically wrapped to mark the shift between Kau (or Kauwela), the season of Kū, and Hoʻoilo, the season of Lono. At the center of the display, adorned with symbolic greenery and feather lei appropriate for an island circuit, is a kiʻi understood to be the only remaining akua loa to have been used in Makahiki circuits made by high chiefs in the 1800s, most likely on Hawaiʻi Island.

We extend our gratitude to the Museum’s cultural advisors, interpretive staff and docents, and those who care for our collections for their help in facilitating a way for our institution to recognize and honor the significance of Makahiki.

Visit Bishop Museum today to see this special symbol of Hawaiian culture, and hundreds of other cultural objects and natural history specimens on display in our galleries.

Interested in learning more about the Ethnology Department's work? Come visit our webpage at BishopMuseum.org/Ethnology.

Written by KM, JS.

01/09/2024

Kumu Humuhumu is currently on business hiatus to focus on my kapa practice and cultural study. 🌺❤️