Worldwide Voyage

Hawai'i Shares its Culture with the World

12 August - 30 September 2017   October 7, 2017

(By popular demand, the exhibit has been extended until October 7!)

The Isaacs Art Center is privileged to present Worldwide Voyage: Hawai’i Shares Its Culture With The World, a fine art exhibition in which the navigational story of the Hōkūleʻa’s Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage is told through photographs, cultural items, and art inspired by the voyage. The exhibition, which originated at the Volcano Art Center Gallery in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, will be on view at Isaacs Art Center from Saturday 12 August through Saturday 30 September.

The Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage has taken the iconic sailing canoe Hōkūleʻa around the Earth, and her sister canoe Hikianalia around the Pacific, to promote a global movement toward a more sustainable world. The Mālama Honua (caring of Island Earth) mission seeks to engage communities worldwide in the practice of  sustainable living while sharing Polynesian culture, learning from the past and from each other, creating global relationships, and inspiring action to care for and discover the wonders of Earth.  Since departing Hawaiian waters in May 2014, Hōkūle‘a will have sailed approximately 60,000 nautical miles and made stops in 27 countries and 100 ports, weaving a “Lei of Hope” around the world.

Curated by Gary Eoff, the exhibition is a collection of mounted photographs, cultural items, and art. The photographs, provided by the Polynesian Voyaging Society, offer a first-hand account of the navigation, ports visited and the stories of the individual navigators. The cultural items, made by Ed Kaneko and his students, Cliff Johns as well as Gary Eoff illustrate primitive wayfaring methods and supplies used on ancient voyages.  Several items on display traveled on the canoe to The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History as part of the voyage.  Artwork including a star compass table and paddles by David Reisland are also on display.