Kauluhiwaolele 2021
Maui Fiber Arts Conference - Registrations now open

SAVE THE DATE: DEC 1-4, 2021

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Kauluhiwaolele Maui Fiber Arts Conference recognizes the multiple ways we utilize Hawaiian plant material. Leaves, bark, sedges and roots are just some of the fibers used to weave, twill, twine and knot into precious creations. Kauluhiwaolele speaks to the esteemed groves from which we gather the fibers to fashion our traditional crafts and the increasing practice of these precious arts in Lāhainā. The pū hala (pandanus tree) is celebrated as an important part of every Hawaiian family in our woven mats, pillows, baskets and the sails that brought our people on canoes across the Pacific. ʻIeʻie is an endemic woody, branching climber (Freycinetia arborea) which is made into the finest baskets, fish traps, and as a sturdy framework for other crafts. Kōkō is the practice of knotting sennit to create nets and calabash net-carriers. Kapa is cloth made from the bark of the wauke (paper mulberry) plant.

The conference will consist of four days of intense instruction in these weaving crafts by 20 of our kumu (master practitioners) from throughout Hawaiʻi. 150 students are invited to the opening and closing ceremonies of the conference to learn the associated protocols of gathering and utilizing weaving materials. Local favorites will be served at the culminating celebration, and students are encouraged to wear or display items they created throughout the conference. Live Hawaiian musicians entertain between the silent and live auctions hosted that evening. The proceeds are used to bring more kumu to the conference and provide scholarships for conference attendees. The dinner, Hawaiian craft fair and workshops in the lobby are open to participants and the general public.

Meet the Kumu

The masters.  Your teachers.

Maile Andrade

Maile Andrade is a multi-media artist and has a Masters of Fine Art degree from the University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa. She presently is a Professor at Kamakakukalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa teaching in a Native Hawaiian Creative Expression Program. She has received a variety of academic awards and was selected by the Folk Arts Apprentice Program to serve as an apprentice with Master Weaver Elizabeth Lee and received the 1998 Visual Arts Fellowship from the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.  She has participated in several Indigenous Symposiums/Gatherings in New Zealand, Tahiti, and the Longhouse in Evergreen State College, Washington.  Maile was artist-in-resident in New Zealand, at the Alaska Heritage Center, Anchorage and SAR School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, NM.  She serves as an Affiliate Researcher at Bishop Museum and has presented all over the world.  Her works have been exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally. 

Iliahi Anthony

Iliahi is a native of Hilo, HI and an educator at Ka ʻUmeke Kāʻeo, a Hawaiian immersion charter school.  She is a hula practitioner with Hālau Kekuhi, hula implement maker and weaver. She is also known for her furniture designs that infuse cultural practices with a modernist furniture take.

 

Kuʻulei Morales Becklund

Kuʻulei was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, and is the 8th child of 11 children to Martha Kalahiki and Alfred Carvalho Morales. During a family reunion in 1985, Kuʻulei's sister taught her how to weave a bracelet. In the tradition of her Tutu Lady, Kuʻulei embraced lauhala weaving techniques and continues to weave. She is an active member of ‘Aha Pūhala O Puna.

Karen Hasegawa

Karen is from Kona, Hawaiʻi. Her grandmother was a weaver as well as her mother so weaving is in her blood. As a child, she remembers watching them weave and later learned to weave from her mother Daisy Hasegawa. She also learned weaving from Josephine Fergerstrom, Ed Kaneko, and Jim Skibby. She learned the crownless hat from Aunty Josephine.

Pohaku Kahoʻohanohano

Pōhaku Kahoʻohanohano comes from a lineage of lauhala weavers from Kahakuloa, Maui. As a young adult he began his journey of apprenticeships with seven mentors and immersed himself in the art of lauhala weaving. He is now a master weaver dedicated to sharing his skill with others. He is excited to bring weavers to the island of Maui by co-chairing this conference.

Kuʻuipo Kalahiki-Morales

Kuʻuipo first learned traditional Hawaiian weaving as a child and has been an instructor of Hawaiian arts for over 18 years. She spent her childhood in Koʻolau Poko, Kahaluʻu, Oʻahu. Her Tutu Lady was a weaver of lauhala and like the weavers of old, had a pū hala growing outside her home. It was there that the deep love of weaving was sparked and burns strong to this day.

 

Ed Lum

Ed's passion for Hawaiian weaving began when he started weaving with lauhala in 2017 under the guidance of Kumu Pōhaku Kahoʻohanohano. At the Ola I Ka Pūhala conference in October 2018, he was introduced to ʻieʻie with nā Kumu Kumulāʻau and Haunani Balino-Sing, and he has been studying with them ever since. At Kauluhiwaolele 2019, he was selected to become a kumu at the next conference.

Marques Hanalei Marzan

Marques is a Hawaiian fiber artist born and raised in Kaneʻohe, Oʻahu. He has learned and trained under noted experts in Hawaiʻi and continues to broaden his knowledge base of indigenous Pacific perspectives. He currently serves as Cultural Advisor at the Bishop Museum and shares his understanding and passion of the fiber arts through presentations, demonstrations, and workshops.

Pualani Muraki

Pualani was born in Lehuʻula and resides at Holualoa makai, Kona. Weaving since birth, her first kumu was her beloved mom, Frances Kia Agustin. Her other kumu include: Mrs. Uemura, Ginger Alexander, Kia Fronda, Maile Baird, Debbie Toko, Margaret Lovett, Debbie Tuzon, and Pohaku Kaho'ohanohano. Pualani is inspired by a beautiful day gathering hala.

Marcia Omura

Marcia was born and raised on Oʻahu and still resides in Niu Valley. She started hat weaving in 1980 with Gladys Kukana Grace and continued to weave with her until her passing in 2013. Marcia loves handling pāpale lauhala samples of old, looking at old photos and movies so that she can learn from them and try to replicate what she has experienced.

Pueo Pata

ʻO Cody Kapueolaʻākeanui ("Pueo") Pata nō he kumu ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, he kumu hana noʻeau, a he puʻukani hoʻi; a, ʻo ke Kumu Hula nō ʻo ia o ka hālau hula ʻo Ka Malama Mahilani (Kahului, Maui, & Maunalua, Oʻahu). He liko ʻailolo nō ʻo ia ma ka lālā hula o George Lanakilakeikiahialiʻi Nāʻope, a he pua haumāna hoʻi na kāna poʻe Loea a Kumu Hula i aloha nui ʻia: ʻo Nona Mahilani Kaluhiokalani, ʻo Keʻala Kūkona, ʻo Jay Jay Ahulau Akiona, a me Hilda Keanaʻāina nō hoʻi. Ma o nā hana a kuleana hālau i hele mua ai ʻo Kumu Pueo a mākaukau ma kēlā me kēia ʻano hana noʻeau––ma lalo nō hoʻi o ka manaʻo kia a alakaʻi ʻo "E mākaukau a mikimiki, e mikioi a maiau."
Ma waho naʻe o kona hiki ke nala i nā ʻano mea lau hala mauʻu/maka nui, ma ka makahiki 2017 nō i aʻo ʻia ai ʻo ia i ka nala makaliʻi ʻana e kona hoapili hoʻi, ʻo Kumu Kāʻeo Izon o ka Hui ʻAla Hīnano. He muʻo nō hoʻi ʻo Kumu Kāʻeo na kāna poʻe kumu hiwahiwa nala lau hala: ʻo Kumu Hula Ipolani Vaughan, ʻo Evva Lim, ʻo Suzi Akimakaokalani Swartman, a me Margaret Lovett nō.

 

Lynda Saffery

Lynda received her formal training in ulana lauhala as an apprentice under a 1988 State Foundation on Culture and the Arts grant.  In 1989 she participated in a Masters Grant for ulana lauhala under the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. Lynda took a sabbatical to Tonga in 2002 where she studied weaving, as well as kapa making and design. She enjoys sharing her knowledge of traditional ways.

Stacie Segovia

Stacie started weaving in 2010 with Kumu Gwen Kamisugi and shortly after also learned to weave from Kumu Pohaku Kahoʻohanohano. Stacie has also learned from Margaret Lovett and Barbara Watanabe. After 3 years, Aunty Gwen asked Stacie to help her make the kits and to help teach the ulana lauhala classes. In 2016, Aunty Gwen with the consent from Kumu Pohaku had requested that Stacie continue her teachings and to always continue to perpetuate the art of ulana lauhala. Stacie spends Saturdays planting and caring for Puhala at various locations. She teaches the haumana of Nā Lālā o Ka Pūhala and also offers weekly classes at Na Kupuna Makamae and at her home. Stacie’s dream is to attend cultural events where everyone is wearing a traditional papale lauhala!

Kal Shibata

A native of ‘Aiea, O’ahu, Kal Shibata began his weaving journey in January 2014 when he and his wife took the Ulana Me Ka Lokomaikaʻi (UMKL) Club's Pāpale Class for their anniversary. After retiring from the Army the following year, he devoted most of his time to learning from different Kumu throughout Hawaiʻi.  However, he credits his foundational knowledge to his Kumu, Marcia Omura.  He began teaching weaving after he was encouraged by UMKL Founder, Uncle Frank Masagatani, to teach lauhala and loulu and to learn and perpetuate other fiber weaving as well.  Uncle Frank also encouraged him to focus on the younger generation, so he has volunteered at several hālau hula and numerous public schools on Oʻahu, as well as Hālau Kū Mana Charter School and Punahou since 2017.  While the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented large gatherings, he has followed State and county guidelines to continue teaching his students in small groups each week.   He is married to a fellow weaver enthusiast and they have one son.

Dee Shimabukuro

Dee is from Honokaʻa, Hawaiʻi. She began weaving in 1972 in classes sponsored by Queen Emma Civic Club and was taught by Elaine Mulaney. After a break from weaving, she continued in 1999 with an apprenticeship under Lily Sugahara through the State Foundation on Culture and Arts Program. She enjoys sharing what she has learned just as nā kumu before her did.

Lloyd Kumulaʻau Sing and May Haunani Balino-Sing

Kumulāʻau and Haunani are passionate Hawaiian cultural educators who combined have over 40 years teaching in the community.  Mentored under the guidance of master weaver Raymond K. Nakama, Kumulāʻau has mastered the art of ulana ʻieʻie, and over the years taught Haunani to weave ʻieʻie rootlets to recreate the many beautiful forms attributed to this style of weaving.   Working a business together as Ke Kumu Hawaiʻi, the Sings continue to teach haumāna of all ages ulana ʻie and other Hawaiian material culture arts.

Verna Takashima

In 2005, Kapa cultural practitioner Verna Apio-Takashima discovered she was a fifth generation lineal descendant of 19th century kapa experts, which led her to pursue excellence in the contemporary field of kapa making. She has developed a style of decorating bark cloth made of wauke or paper mulberry comprised of layers of beaten watermarked cloth. The upper layer is stamped with ‘ohe kapala (bamboo stamps) and is hand painted with color derived from traditional earth and plant dyes. Her contemporary patterns are a celebration of line, geometry, and circles balanced with natural dye colors.
Apio-Takashima has exhibited at Arts at Marks Garage, Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Maui Arts and Cultural Center, Tamaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum, and Kahilu Theater. Kapa making demonstrations are a hallmark of her practice, most notably at Bishop Museum, National Museum of the American Museum, Smithsonian, Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum, and the World Indigenous People Conference on Education (WIPCE).

Dalani Tanahy

The art of Hawaiian kapa or bark cloth making had been dormant for about sixty years and had recently entered a revival period when Dalani Tanahy began to learn, then embrace, then be captured by the many elements and moods of kapa.  An artist since childhood, she delighted in the creative process in all its forms. The road to being a kapa maker was a long and arduous one, and Dalani was mostly self-taught as both a practitioner and hands-on instructor of the many arts involved in the making of kapa.  Part of her longevity in this art was directly because she enjoyed and was challenged by the many disciplines required in it, including horticulture, the natures of wood and stone for tool-making, the science of natural dyes and fermentation, and above all, the patience to fashion the inner layer of tree bark into a soft pliable material.  Teaching it for almost 25 years helps to ensure that she can always look at kapa with fresh eyes as she tries to view and create the art as influenced by ancestral sensibilities.

Debbie Toko

Debbie was born in Sagamihara, Japan and now resides as a part time taro farmer in Waipiʻo Valley, Hawaiʻi. She is a healer, practitioner of acupuncture and massage therapy. She began weaving lauhala in 1998 with Kia Fronda. Her kumu were Margaret Lovett, Gladys Grace, Elizabeth Maluihi Lee, Peter Park, and Pohaku Kahoʻohanohano.

 

Barbara Watanabe

Barbara was born and resides in Kona, Hawaiʻi. As a child she learned to weave baskets, fans, and lauhala house slippers from her grandmother. Barbara has been weaving pāpale with Ed Kaneko, Jim Skibby, and Josephine Fergerstrom for the past 8 years and is grateful for the knowledge that has been passed down to her.

mission

The mission of Kauluhiwaolele Maui Fiber Arts Conference is to increase the number of community-based educators and resources by inviting students from around the world to learn from master practitioners.

 

vision

Kauluhiwaolele Maui Fiber Arts Conference is a four-day event where 150 students will learn from 20 master practitioners of hala, ʻieʻie, kōkō, puʻupuʻu and ‘upena. Students will have the opportunity to participate in ceremony, protocol, and huakaʻi to contribute to the restoration and conservation of raw weaving materials on Maui. Presentations from community agencies and panel discussions led by master practitioners will accompany the festivities. An event dinner with pūpū, live music, silent and live auction, and Hawaiian craft fair open to conference attendees and the general public will be the culminating celebration of the conference.