He`e Nalu: The Art & Legacy of Hawaiian Surfing

In response to the 2024 Summer Olympic Surfing events scheduled to take place in Tahiti, the ancestral homeland of Kānaka `Ōiwi and in time for the gathering of Pacifica artists and cultural partitioners at the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture (FestPAC) on O`ahu. Kua`aina will be partnering with Hawai`i based kānaka curators and arts organizations from O`ahu, Hawai`i Island and Maui with the plan to present smaller curated iterations of the larger exhibit “He`e Nalu: The Art & Legacy of Hawaiian Surfing” that was on exhibit at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ in 2023. The exhibit covered 2,000 years of surfing history and from the earliest stories of surf deities to contemporary works of art and surfing innovations through the lens of thirteen modern Kānaka `Ōiwi creatives and cultural practitioners. Providing a cyclical narrative rooted in culture while addressing the complicated relationship that surfing’s Indigenous people have with the Western dominated billion-dollar surf industry today, these smaller exhibits will celebrate and uplift the rich cultural heritage and legacy of He`e Nalu.