Bishop Museum to Host Mālama Hāloa Kalo Festival & Symposium During the Opening Weekend of its New Exhibition, Corned Beef & Kalo

# Bishop Museum to Host Mālama Hāloa Kalo Festival & Symposium During the Opening Weekend of its New Exhibition, Corned Beef & Kalo

Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, the State of Hawai'i Museum of Natural and Cultural History, will host the Mālama Hāloa Kalo Festival & Symposium during the opening weekend of its new exhibition, Corned Beef & Kalo.

Opening in the Museum's J. M. Long Gallery on Saturday, March 9, Corned Beef & Kalo, curated by Healoha Johnston, Bishop Museum director of Cultural Resources and curator for Hawaiʻi and Pacific Arts and Culture, will feature Pisupo lua afe (Corned Beef 2000) by Michel Tuffery, and KALO by Bernice Akamine. The exhibition brings together two iconic works of contemporary art to consider how artists make visible issues related to agricultural subsistence, environmental sustainability, and everyday life where food imports and structured land use intertwine.

For the past 15 years, Ka Papa Loʻi ʻO Kānewai and Ka Papa Loʻi ʻO Punaluʻu have been the host of the Mālama Hāloa Kalo Festival & Symposium, with each event spotlighting a ʻohana kalo or a specific Hawaiian taro variety. This year, Bishop Museum hosts the event for the first time to celebrate the kalo Piʻialiʻi and ʻEleʻele Mākoko.

"It is truly an honor to host the Mālama Hāloa Kalo Festival, which has been an important annual gathering," said Johnston. "The Festival and the work of our partner, Ka Papa Loʻi ʻO Kānewai, led by Makahiapo Cashman inspired and informed many of the themes in our exhibition. While Corned Beef & Kalo presents insight and commentary on food sovereignty and what this may mean for Hawaiʻi, the Mālama Hāloa Kalo Festival & Symposium's mission is to educate the lāhui about different Hawaiian kalo varieties and how to care for them, bringing together kalo farmers, practitioners, artists, hālau, and environmental experts."

In addition to the added experience of the Mālama Hāloa Kalo Festival & Symposium presentations and performances, visitors to the Museum can engage in the themes of Corned Beef & Kalo not only within the exhibition itself, but throughout the Museum campus.

"Bishop Museum touches on the themes — and spirit — of Corned Beef & Kalo in different ways and in different presentations," said Johnston. "Visitors can find additional cultural and historical context of Native Hawaiian food and kalo within Hawaiian Hall, and also in our Nā Ulu Kaiwi'ula Native Hawaiian Garden, extending the exhibition experience across our campus."

Within the exhibition proper:

• Akamine's KALO installation features the pages of the Kūʻē Petitions copied on newsprint paper and attached to pōhaku (stones) in reference to Hawaiʻi's origin stories and Aloha 'Āina movements.
• Tuffery's Pisupo lua afe grapples with the convergence of everyday consumer items, customary practice, and commercialized foodways in the Pacific.
• Together, they bring our attention to the way a society's worldview informs everyday actions within larger food systems and can support healthy relationships between people and the environment.

Outside the exhibition:

• Hawaiian Hall:
  • 1st floor connections: Stories of the origins of taro:
  • "Nā Poʻe Kahiko: The People of Old, the Ancestors"
  • "No Hāloa A Wākea"
  • 2nd floor connections: Presentations on Nā Meaʻai (foods, the Hawaiian diet), kalo/taro, and implements used to prepare kalo
  • 3rd floor connections: the digitally reproduced Kūʻē Petitions and in the case that features Queen Liliʻuokalani
• Nā Ulu Kaiwi'ula Native Hawaiian Garden:
  • Loʻi kalo (kalo plants in our garden)
• Library & Archives Nūpepa project:
  • The use of newsprint in KALO by Bernice Akamine references the important role Hawaiian language newspapers played in Hawaiʻi's Aloha ʻĀina movement.
  • He Aupuni Palapala: Preserving and Digitizing the Hawaiian Language Newspapers is an ambitious, multi-year collaboration between Bishop Museum and Awaiaulu: blog.bishopmuseum.org/nupepa/

Bishop Museum is the host venue for Mālama Hāloa Festival 2024 and an official venue for the Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPAC) 2024 in collaboration with The Pacific Community (SPC), celebrating the theme: "Ho'oulu Lāhui: Regenerating Oceania" honoring the traditions that FestPAC exists to perpetuate with an eye toward the future. Corned Beef & Kalo is developed in partnership with Ed "Makahiapo" Cashman, Director of Ka Papa Loʻi ʻO Kānewai at Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in conjunction with the Mālama Hāloa Festival and the Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture 2024.

Corned Beef & Kalo opens to the public in Bishop Museum's J. M. Long Gallery in Hawaiian Hall on Saturday, March 9, 2023, and runs through Sept. 8, 2024. Additional information and tickets can be found at BishopMuseum.org.

Media Preview Opportunity on Thursday, March 7, 2024

Bishop Museum invites members of the media to attend an exclusive, pre-opening, closed-door Media Preview of Corned Beef & Kalo:

• Thursday, March 7, 2024
• 1-4 p.m. HST
• Bishop Museum, J. M. Long Gallery, Hawaiian Hall Complex
• Please RSVP with Lance Aquino via the contact information above

Interview opportunities:

• Bishop Museum Director of Cultural Resources and Exhibition Curator Healoha Johnston
• KALO artist Bernice Akamine
• Bishop Museum Director of Exhibits and Corned Beef & Kalo Exhibit Designer Brad Evans
• Makahiapo Cashman, Director of Kānewai at Hawai'inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge