{"id":184686,"date":"2023-10-06T12:52:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T22:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=184686"},"modified":"2024-03-14T16:09:40","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T02:09:40","slug":"hawaiian-kapa-master-honored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/10\/06\/hawaiian-kapa-master-honored\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawaiian kapa master honored in nation\u2019s capital"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_184691\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-184691\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/roen-hufford-nea-award.jpg\" alt=\"group of people\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-184691\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/roen-hufford-nea-award.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/roen-hufford-nea-award-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/roen-hufford-nea-award-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-184691\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roen Kahalewai Hufford is among nine selected as a 2023 National Heritage Fellow. (Photo credit: Lynn Martin Graton)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You could say that reclaiming elements of Native Hawaiian artistry that were nearly lost and forgotten is interwoven into Roen Kahalewai Hufford\u2019s <abbr title=\"deoxyribonucleic acid\">DNA<\/abbr>. The University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa alumna is the leading figure in the traditional art of ka hana kapa (making barkcloth) and this fall, received one of the nation\u2019s highest honors in the folk and traditional arts from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arts.gov\/\">National Endowment for the Arts<\/a> (<abbr>NEA<\/abbr>) for her leadership in the revival of kapa.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Related <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> News story: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/03\/10\/manoa-alumna-national-art-fellowship\/\">Reclaiming the art of kapa earns <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa alumna national art fellowship<\/a>, March 10, 2023<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_184689\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-184689\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/roen-hufford-nea-award-2-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"woman\u02bbs headshot\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-184689\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/roen-hufford-nea-award-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/roen-hufford-nea-award-2-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/roen-hufford-nea-award-2.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-184689\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roen Kahalewai Hufford (Photo credit: Lynn Martin Graton)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><abbr>NEA<\/abbr> recognized her as a 2023 National Heritage Fellow at the agency\u2019s public ceremony in Washington, D.C. in September. Hufford firmly follows in the footsteps of her mother, expert Kanaka <span aria-label=\"Oiwi\">&#699;&#332;iwi<\/span> (Native Hawaiian) artisan Marie Leilehua McDonald known for her mastery and scholarship in the art of lei-making. McDonald, who died in 2019, was also named a <abbr>NEA<\/abbr> National Heritage Fellow in 1990.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I was overwhelmed and I cried because my mother was not here to know that I had done this or that somebody even thought to honor me,&rdquo; Hufford said. &ldquo;We just go about our lives doing what needs to be done. I like to think of all the kapa makers in my generation who knew my mother, who were inspired by her. I would hope that they share in this with me because we are all colleagues in our different projects.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>From the ground up<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_173885\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-173885\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/manoa-art-alumni-roen-hufford-national-fellowship-kapa-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Roen Hufford and her kapa pieces\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-173885\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/manoa-art-alumni-roen-hufford-national-fellowship-kapa-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/manoa-art-alumni-roen-hufford-national-fellowship-kapa-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/manoa-art-alumni-roen-hufford-national-fellowship-kapa.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-173885\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo credit: Lynn Martin Graton)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For the last 30 years, interest in ka hana kapa has grown with Hufford at the helm. The kapa making process is long and labor intensive. It begins with peeling and cleaning the bast (fibrous material) from 7- to 10-foot stems cut from wauke (paper mulberry) trees. The fiber is soaked in sea water, beaten with wooden mallets into thin sheets, and then felted into larger pieces. In <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>, delicate watermarks are imprinted by patterned beaters and the dried kapa is decorated with natural colors derived from flowers, fruits, bark and soil. Dyes are applied with handmade stamps, brushes, bits of wood and even leaf stems.<\/p>\n<p>The renowned kapa artist called <span aria-label=\"Kaneohe\">K&#257;ne&#699;ohe<\/span> home as a child before her <span aria-label=\"ohana\">&#699;ohana<\/span> (family) relocated to a 9-acre farm on Hawaiian Homelands in Waimea on <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island. Hufford credits her mom for raising them to trust their artistic expression, a skillset she tries to pass down to her own ka hana kapa haum\u0101na (students).<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I don\u2019t ever recall her saying that we had made a mistake. She never said to us, &lsquo;No, that\u2019s not the way.&rsquo; She accepted every attempt and encouraged us to self-evaluate. She was exemplary as a teacher in that she saw potential in all of her students,&rdquo; Hufford explained.<\/p>\n<h2>Inspirational impacts<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_173887\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-173887\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/manoa-art-alumni-roen-hufford-national-fellowship-kapa-2.jpg\" alt=\"Kapa art piece\" width=\"200\" class=\"size-full wp-image-173887\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/manoa-art-alumni-roen-hufford-national-fellowship-kapa-2.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/manoa-art-alumni-roen-hufford-national-fellowship-kapa-2-129x300.jpg 129w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/manoa-art-alumni-roen-hufford-national-fellowship-kapa-2-56x130.jpg 56w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-173887\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hufford\u2019s &ldquo;Lei Hulu&rdquo; is on display in <abbr>DHHL<\/abbr>\u2019s Office of the Chair in Kapolei. (Photo credit: Lynn Martin Graton)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>From 1970&#8211;73, Hufford attended <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa and earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in art. While studying at the university, Hufford relished the opportunity to soak in the campus\u2019 wide spectrum of courses ranging from music to botany.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I found it really exciting to take something outside of my major and understand how important plants are to us in the whole scheme of life, so that really impacted me,&rdquo; Hufford said.<\/p>\n<p>Even today, cultivating and making kapa are inseparable for her. She still resides on her family\u2019s farm in Waimea which is surrounded by hundreds of wauke trees that flourished from three tiny cuttings that were first planted by her mother. Hufford hosts a weekly kapa hui (kapa group) at the farm where students of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels come to learn and share with each other.<\/p>\n<h2>On display<\/h2>\n<p>This October, the Department of Hawaiian Homelands (<abbr>DHHL<\/abbr>) installed Hufford\u2019s &ldquo;Lei Hulu&rdquo; piece inside its headquarters in Kapolei. The <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> State Foundation on Culture and the Arts has six kapa pieces made by Hufford on display in the <a href=\"https:\/\/sfca.hawaii.gov\/art-in-public-places-program\/\">Art in Public Places Collection<\/a>. Three pieces (&ldquo;Alaea,&rdquo; &ldquo;Ka Papa Honua (strata of earth)&rdquo; and &ldquo;<span aria-label=\"Pii\">Pi&#699;i<\/span> Ka Mauna&rdquo;) are also on display at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/capitolmodern\">Capitol Modern<\/a> (formerly the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> State Art Museum) through the end of this year. Admission is free.<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaii.edu\/art\/\">Department of Art and Art History<\/a> is housed in the <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/call\/\">College of Arts, Languages and Letters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa alumna Roen Kahalewai Hufford is recognized as a 2023 National Heritage Fellow, one of the nation\u2019s highest honors in traditional art.  <\/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":[90,679,105,1507,1471,9,1626],"class_list":["post-184686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-alumni","tag-alumni-recognition","tag-art","tag-art-and-art-history","tag-college-of-arts-languages-and-letters","tag-uh-manoa","tag-women-of-uh","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184686","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=184686"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184732,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184686\/revisions\/184732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}