Annual Hawaiʻi Contemporary Exhibit: He Ehu, He Pōhaku ┃Of Mist and Stone

Exhibition on-view: June 8th - July 26th, 2024

 

 

While modern culture is growing into inclusive morality, the influence and impact of homophobia and patriarchy remains embedded from generations of colonialism in Hawai'i. I see that we are trying to detach from these harmful perceptions, but truly unmooring from these imposed patriarchal beliefs requires access to knowledge, conscious effort, and practices that illuminate our relationality. 

 

The Protestant missionaries, who arrived in 1819, brought theological views of Jonathan Edwards and religious imperialism to Hawai‘i. This religious conversion was defined by Protestant and patriarchal values. Many Hawaiians, especially Māhū, did not fit within these limitations, and laws were enforced to penalize them, which severed families and communities. Many Māhū hid their identities as their only means of protection. This subsequently resulted in a significant cultural loss to Hawai'i because the social construct of gender diminished their indigenous ways of understanding and practicing balance.  

 

Māhū live beyond the spectrum of gender and sexuality. They exist in the in-between and enhance the world within and around them, like waters transform, migrate, and move hardened landscapes. The vision for this exhibit is to acknowledge the attempted erasure, and the importance of the reappearance of Hawaiian ways of thinking, by seeking the wisdom of Māhū. The advocating and eloquent voices for and from Māhū in this exhibit share Hawaiian ways of balance, belonging, and relationality. 

 

Check out the July 20th event in conjunction with the exhibition, Redeeming Māhū.