I am fortunate to be given the catalogue to the groundbreaking exhibition Ka ‘Ula Wena: Oceanic Red, which was held from 25 May 2024 until 12 January 2025 at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. Unfortunately, I did not see the accompanying exhibition although the catalogue is worthy of reading in its own right, edited by Leah Caldeira and Healoha Johnson but including contributions from around 20 scholars around the Pacific and beyond including Maia Nuku, Pauline Reynolds and Katerina Teaiwa.
An original Bishop Museum exhibition that explored manifestations of red in the landscapes, memory, and created expressions of Oceania, this was an unusual starting point for an exhibition of Oceanic art but the catalogue demonstrated how the colour red weaves through the perspectives of Oceania. It added to our understanding of the significance of this colour in Hawaiʻi and across the vast Moananuiākea.
This catalogue includes poetry as well as essays examining many aspects of the colour red in cultures across Oceania from Hawai’i’s Hina Puamohala Kneubuhl’s article No Ka Pūkohukohu: Making Red Dye from the Noni Root to Nina Tonga’s contribution on the role of red or kulokula in Tonga including the mass gathering of Tongan flags. A highlight are the clear and rich images captured by David Franzen.
Looking at what may seem traditional Oceanic art through a new lens makes this catalogue especially interesting and also captures much of the relevance of the Oceanic Art Society with its continuing support for and promotion of the arts of the Pacific. As always, this edition of the Journal includes some important new scholarship on the arts and artists of Oceania.
In the first of a series, Judy Robinson provides original research on tiki while Elsa Spigolon has reviewed a ground-breaking exhibition of Kwoma art in Paris, Dan Toua whets our appetite for the coming BILONG Papua New Guinea exhibition in Canberra and Bill Rathmell reviews SEA Art: South East Asian Art.
Margaret Cassidy
