Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 3, 1 March 2012 — The beauty is in the details [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The beauty is in the details

By Francine Murray Hawaiian artisans and collectors alike have a rich new reference book to add to their libraries, Links to the Past by Wendy S. Arbeit. What seemed a lovely coffee-table book at first glance is so mueh more than just visually entertaining, it's a glimpse of Hawaiian history told through useful everyday items. Offering a plethora of artifacts, this eompilation of well over 1,000 drawings depicting the detailed patterns on pieces from the 18th and 19th century, like gourds, woven items, feather work, implements, kites and string figures. Although limited to a small section, the author included string figures because the nearly lost art was an important part of the Hawaiian culture. String work and string figures were a part of the learning process with some oral histories and chants

taught with the use of string. Arbeit explains how the earliest collected pieces were made of loeal materials. Rich with culture they reflected the hierarchy and religion of the time. Western inhuenee, metals and other imported materials quickly changed the future of Hawaiian objects. Traditional wooden daggers and bone fishhooks were replaced with iron ones. Eaeh section of the book begins with a link to the past, quotes from historians and others who witnessed firsthand these and similar items being used by the Hawaiian eommunity. For example, a quote from Capt. James Cook, cited from The Voyages of Captain James Cook, says, "They stain their gourd-shells prettily with undulated lines, triangles, and other figures of a hlaek colour. . . . and they seem to posses the art of varnishing; for some of these stained gourd-shells are covered with a kind of lacker."

And, Cmdr. James King of Cook's third voyage noted, "The gourds, whieh grow to so enormous a size that some of themare eapahle of containing from ten to twelve gallons, are applied to all manner of domestic purposes; and in order to fit them the better to their respective uses, they have the ingenuity to give them different forms, by tying bandages around them during their growth." The centuries-old perspectives are helpful as they bring to light the thought

involved in creating some of the items, and although utilitarian, the beauty in the detail was artful and skilled. Museum abbreviations aeeompanying illustrations inform the reader where eaeh pieee is located. Pieces from more than 75 museums were included in

this book, whieh took five years to complete. ■

Gourd illustrations ' by WendyArbeit