{"id":178730,"date":"2023-06-09T13:52:48","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T23:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=178730"},"modified":"2023-06-17T22:28:14","modified_gmt":"2023-06-18T08:28:14","slug":"first-native-hawaiian-nmai-associate-curator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/06\/09\/first-native-hawaiian-nmai-associate-curator\/","title":{"rendered":"First Native Hawaiian associate curator for National Museum of the American Indian"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"Halena<\/p>\n

In a first for the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of the American Indian<\/a> (NMAI<\/abbr>), Halena Kapuni-Reynolds, a PhD candidate in the Department of American Studies at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Mānoa<\/a>, has been appointed associate curator for Native Hawaiian history and culture.<\/p>\n

Although the museum\u2019s physical location is in Washington, D.C., Kapuni-Reynolds will continue to reside and work from Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island. His supervisor Michelle Delaney, assistant director for history and culture, wrote the grant proposal for the nascent Native Hawaiian associate curator position to be community focused and 100% remote.<\/p>\n

“We are thrilled to have Halena join the NMAI<\/abbr> team and welcome the increased emphasis on Native Hawaiian cultural research and programming which will be developed over time,” Delaney said.<\/p>\n

Kanaka ʻŌiwi<\/span> scholar<\/h2>\n

Kapuni-Reynolds is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi<\/span> (Native Hawaiian) composer and scholar, born on Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island and raised in Keaukaha. He holds a BA<\/abbr> in anthropology and Hawaiian studies from UH<\/abbr> Hilo<\/a> (2013) and an MA<\/abbr> in anthropology with a focus on museum and heritage studies from the University of Denver (2015). His master\u2019s thesis, “Curating Aliʻi<\/span> Collections: Responsibility, Sensibility, and Contextualization in Â鶹´«Ã½-Based<\/span> Museums,”<\/a> analyzed the ways in which aliʻi<\/span> (Hawaiian chiefly) collections are cared for and exhibited at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum and the Lyman House Memorial Museum.<\/p>\n

\"3
From left, Karen Kosasa, retiring director of the UH<\/abbr> Mānoa museum studies graduate certificate program, Halena Kapuni-Reynolds, Noelle Kahanu, incoming director.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Prior to joining NMAI<\/abbr>, Kapuni-Reynolds served as a graduate assistant for the Museum Studies Graduate Certificate Program<\/a> at UH<\/abbr> Mānoa, where he worked collaboratively with faculty members to organize conversations and events around museum decolonization and Indigenization. In 2022, he assisted in the development and implementation of Weaving a Net(work) of Care: A Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Museum Institute, a museological training program for individuals in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and across the Pacific<\/a>, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.<\/p>\n

“When I was an undergraduate at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo, I majored in anthropology and Hawaiian studies, took an array of courses focused on Hawaiian language, community-based archaeology and ethnohistorical research, and participated in numerous internships across East Â鶹´«Ã½.<\/span> These experiences continue to inform my education at UH<\/abbr>-Mānoa as an American Studies graduate student, where I have taken courses in museum studies, Indigenous studies, diasporic literatures, and U.S. history, culture, and politics,” Kapuni-Reynolds said. “I am grateful to the UH<\/abbr> faculty and staff members who continue to support my intellectual and personal growth over the past 15 years.”<\/p>\n

Community outreach and programming<\/h2>\n

Kapuni-Reynold\u2019s new duties include performing professional curatorial work associated with research, exhibits planning and development, collections review, collections development and information, community outreach, public programming, education and public service functions.<\/p>\n

This includes research for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 2024, specifically how to include participants from Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> to perform and share on the National Mall. He will also be developing new programming for the NMAI<\/abbr> across the state. A traveling banner show on Hawaiian sovereignty may also be in his future.<\/p>\n

In addition to these responsibilities, Kapuni-Reynolds is finishing his dissertation, which tells a decolonial story of the ʻāina<\/span> aloha (beloved lands) of Keaukaha. Delaney said she hopes he will publish it with the NMAI<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n

\"canoe
This waʻa<\/span> (Hawaiian canoe) is on the ground floor of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Halena Kapuni-Reynolds is a PhD candidate in the Department of American Studies at UH<\/abbr> Mānoa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[90,679,813,137,1500,1591,14],"class_list":["post-178730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-alumni","tag-alumni-recognition","tag-american-studies","tag-anthropology","tag-hawaiian-studies","tag-museum-studies","tag-uh-hilo","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178730"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178973,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178730\/revisions\/178973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}