News and Events Blog « Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program

Steadfast Love of the Land

From June through September 2002, the Smithsonian Arts & Industries Building hosted Kaho‘olawe: Ke Aloha Kupa‘a I Ka‘Aina (Steadfast Love of the Land). This exhibition was developed by the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, in cooperation with the Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana.

Kaho‘olawe was a beautifully interwoven tale of how one of Hawai‘i’s islands became degraded and was then rescued and revitalized through a spiritual, cultural, and political awakening of the Native Hawaiian people and their allies. The exhibition allowed visitors to hear the voices of those who participated in the saving of the island. They also could take a computer-simulated tour of the island, read news clippings from the island’s history, and see the faces of island residents going back several generations.

When walking into the exhibit, visitors were greeted by a song that was both familiar and unknown. It turned out to be Somewhere Over the Rainbow, the song immortalized by Judy Garland in the film, The Wizard of Oz. But the exhibit’s version was sung by a Native Hawaiian man accompanied by a ukulele. This mixing of the familiar and unfamiliar was repeated throughout the exhibit, with what we know about Hawai‘i through the mainstream press challenged by the facts as presented by the Native Hawai‘ian people themselves.