Guåhan, Host of the 12th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Cover Image: Masthead of Ka Hoku o Hawaii published on July 27, 1922.
Aloha Nūhou Monday!
Dear Reader,
This week’s post honors Guåhan which, in 2016, became the 12th nation to host the Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture. The festival was held in Hagåtña, under the theme, “Håfa iyo-ta, håfa guinahå-ta, håfa ta påtte, dinanña’ sunidu siha giya Pasifiku” or “What we own, what we have, what we share: united voices of the Pacific.”
Over the past months, we have honored each of the previous FestPAC hosts with posts featuring those island nations and their connections to Hawaiʻi’s own history. In 1922, an article from Ka Hoku o Hawaii writes of Kenneth Emory of Bishop Museum returning from an expedition abroad. Emory reports his belief that the people of Hawaiʻi, along with many other Polynesian peoples, came from the island of Guåhan.
The Hawaiʻi delegation was received with immeasurable warmth and hospitality by its previous host nations. Long-anticipated, Hawaiʻi will host the 13th festival on Oʻahu at the beginning of June 2024. Our theme is, “Hoʻoulu Lāhui: Regenerating Oceania.”
The Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture is the world’s largest celebration of Indigenous Pacific Islanders, bringing together artists, cultural practitioners, scholars, and officials from member nations of the Pacific Community (SPC). This traveling festival is held every four years and was first launched by the South Pacific Commission in 1972 to halt the erosion of traditional practices through ongoing cultural exchange.
Image: “Chart No. 7. Sketch of a Latte,” by Gertrude Hornbostel. Bishop Museum Archives. SP 8183
Image sharing on social media is welcome. For all other uses please contact Archives@BishopMuseum.org, Bishop Museum Archives.
Image: “Mai Guamo Mai Ka Na Hawaii.” Ka Hoku o Hawaii, July 27, 1922, p. 2
Image sharing on social media is welcome. For all other uses please contact Archives@BishopMuseum.org, Bishop Museum Archives.
HAWAIIANS CAME FROM GUAM?
Honolulu, July 22. Kenneth Emory of the Bishop Museum at Kamehameha School returned from his expedition on the island of Guam. In his recent interview with a newspaper writer from Honolulu, he reported that the many different peoples of Polynesia, Hawaiians being included in that group, came from the island of Guam. For him, it is quite untrue to say that the first Hawaiians came from the islands of the Samoan people, but he truly believes that they first lived on the island of Guam, and from that place they came and landed here in Hawaiʻi. He perhaps has some evidence to show the world about the place that Hawaiians came from that cannot be misconstrued. (If Hawaiians first arrived from this island of Guam, then where did Hawaiians come from before this island of Guam?)
Image: “View of a Distillery on the Island of Guam,” drawn by C. Chasselat, after A. Pellion, engraved by Pomel; from Voyage Autour du Monde sur les Corvettes de L’Uranie 1817–20. Bishop Museum Archives. SP 29402
Image sharing on social media is welcome. For all other uses please contact Archives@BishopMuseum.org, Bishop Museum Archives.
Image: Working the rice fields, Guam, 1911. Photo by David T. Fullaway. Bishop Museum Archives. SP 222901
Image sharing on social media is welcome. For all other uses please contact Archives@BishopMuseum.org, Bishop Museum Archives.
Image: Kenneth Emory, Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia, 1930. Bishop Museum Archives. SP 126358
Image sharing on social media is welcome. For all other uses please contact Archives@BishopMuseum.org, Bishop Museum Archives.
This post is part of He Aupuni Palapala: Preserving and Digitizing the Hawaiian Language Newspapers, a partnership between Bishop Museum and Awaiaulu with assistance from Kamehameha Schools. Mahalo nui loa to Hawaii Tourism Authority for their support. Learn more about this project here.
