Bishop Museum Presents Kāhuli Festival 2024

# Bishop Museum Presents Kāhuli Festival 2024

The third-annual, family friendly event is $5 for kamaʻāina and military, and will feature the public opening of a captive research center of live Native Hawaiian snails, as well as a recreation of Queen Liliʻuokalani's necklace of hand-painted Achantinella species snail shells.

Bishop Museum, the State of Hawaiʻi Museum of Natural and Cultural History, presents Kāhuli Festival 2024 this Saturday, Nov. 9 from 3-9 p.m. throughout its 15-acre campus. The third-annual, family friedly event is $5 for kamaʻāina and military, and will feature the public opening of a captive rearing research center of live Native Hawaiian snails, as well as a recreation of Queen Liliʻuokalani's necklace of hand-painted Achantinella species snail shells.

The festival offers opportunities for ʻohana and keiki to learn about and celebrate the rich biocultural diversity that makes Hawaiʻi unique, with programs including:

• Hands-on workshops and talks by conservationists, authors, researchers, and cultural practitioners
• Family friendly activity booths hosted by more than 25 community partners
• Snail-rearing exhibits with live endangered and rare snails from Bishop Museum's Land Snail Conservation Program and the Department of Land and Natural Resources' Snail Extinction Program
• Exhibits showcasing local artists
• Cultural workshops
• Sale of the popular Snail Blazers trading card game, including custom packs by Solomon Enos
• Food and beverage stations, live entertainment, and a silent auction

Bishop Museum collections and departments represented include Malacology, the Pacific Center for Molecular Biodiversity, Ethnology, and Education, as well as the Bishop Museum Seed Bank.

Attendees will be able to view live snails in the Museum's new Pūpū Ola: Kāhuli Captive Rearing Research Center from 3-9 p.m. on the first floor of the Richard T. Mamiya Science Adventure Center. The recreation of Queen Liliʻuokalani's necklace of hand-painted Achantinella snail shells, 3D-printed and hand-painted by Bishop Museum staff, will also be on display in the Pūpū Painting & Kūpeʻe Krafting tent on the Great Lawn.

"The theme of this year's Kāhuli Festival is 'Partnerships for Preserving Biodiversity'," said Taylour Chang, Bishop Museum director of public programs and community partnerships. "The Festival offers an opportunity for the many partners in research, conservation, education, and natural resource management to showcase how we all collaboratively mālama pū i ka ʻāina, especially through the lens of our endangered Hawaiian land snails."

"The Kāhuli Festival is the culmination of nearly two decades of collaborative work with partners sharing the heavy lift of conserving biodiversity for the future," said Ken Hayes, Ph.D., director of the Bishop Museum Center for Molecular Biodiversity. "Our wish is to inspire guests with a deeper understanding and appreciation for the rich biodiversity that makes Hawaiʻi so special, which includes our kāhuli, and to embrace the idea that only together can we save this distinctive biocultural heritage and our unique way of life."

Although kāhuli is often mistakenly thought to refer primarily to the famous Oʻahu Tree Snails, it refers to land snails, broadly. At least 759 species of land snails are native to Hawaiʻi, and 99% of them are found nowhere else in the world. Unfortunately, many of them are critically endangered, with nearly 100 more expected to go extinct in the next decade without effective partnerships and actions.

Kāhuli are important to our Native Hawaiian ecosystems as decomposers and as a food source for other native species. They are also significant in Hawaiian culture, appearing in mele, hula, moʻolelo, and ʻoli. In Feb. 2023, Hawaiʻi Governor Josh Greene, M.D. proclaimed 2023 as the Year of the Kāhuli, helping bring global focus to these precious species.

"We cannot do the research and work that we do without our partnerships. At the same time, our partners also need our museum collections and research for the work that they do in the community and in the field," said Chang. "We want to showcase that through growing our partnerships and supporting the work at the Museum, we can collectively address major issues facing our community with regards to biodiversity loss through the lens of our endangered native snails."

More information and tickets for Kāhuli Festival 2024 can be found on Bishop Museum's website, BishopMuseum.org.