Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 12, 1 December 2013 — The enduring allure of Niʻhau shell lei [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The enduring

allure of

Niʻhau shell lei

By Lynn Cook Pamela Ka'ilikini Dow is both protector and promoter of a Hawaiian art form with ancient beginnings - the Ni'ihau shell lei. Though not a Ni'ihauan, she is the voice of the artisans, the master stringers, who create the lei more rare and precious than pearls. Growing up on Kaua'i, Dow traveled with her father to see friends on the private island of Ni'ihau. "I played with loose shells. They were pearly. The beauty of the plaee, the people and their fine artistry stayed with me," she says. Later she opened a small shop on Kaua'i to sell the lei. "Education was important. People didn't really understand or appreciate the artistry of these lei makers," Dow says. "So, with my husband, Ernest, and two Ni'ihau lei makers we traveled to every island. We set up tables in hotel lobbies, anywhere we could. We talked to anyone who would listen, just to tell the story of these beautiful lei." The lei makers sold a few but mostly, Dow says, they left people with a better understanding of the rarity of the shell and the artistry that ean sell from a few thousand dollars to $10,000 or more. The two lei makers who travel

with her, Sherlin Kanani Beniamina and Iwalani Kanahele, began pieking shells at age 7. Kanahele says her grandma sent her to the beach, saying: "After school, no swimming. Just piek shell." Now experts, they are also trusted by individuals and museums to restring damaged lei. Instantly recognizable, these lei are created from the homes of tiny mollusks swept onto the beaches of Ni'ihau in the winter surf. Where pearls begin with a grain of sand in an oyster, the Ni'ihau shell must be cleaned of sand, a hole punched with a tiny needle and eaeh shell tied with fine line. Collecting shells is labor intensive, months of sitting on a beach, picking shells the size of the head of a pin. Sorted by color and size, finding enough of the rare red, green or blue shells may take years. The same variety shells are found on Kaua'i, and on other Paeihe islands, but none have the luster of the shells picked from the beaches of Ni'ihau. In 2004 the Hawai'i state Legislature passed a law so only the shells picked on the island of Ni'ihau ean carry that designation. Through Jan. 27, the exhibition "Ni'ihau Shell Lei: Oeean Origins, Living Traditions" fills the showcases and walls of the J.M. Long Gallery at Bishop Museum.

The collectors of the private Rick & Chuna Ni'ihau Shell Lei Collection offered their collection to the museum for exhibition. They met with Betty Kam, director of the museum's cultural collections, and with Pam Dow's assistance, the show was set, including pieces from both the private eolleehon and the museum's Ni'ihau collections.

Historic records note that in the late 1700s the lei caught the eye of Capt. James Cook and were eollected for the British Museum. The Bishop Museum show includes a wristlet uncovered from an archaeological site carbon-dated to pre-Western contact and examples of Queen Kapi'olani's lei when she was photographed on her 1887 trip

to New York and London for Queen Victoria's 50th Jubilee. Two shell drapes, onee hanging in the home of Prince Kūhiō and his beloved Kahanu, are spread in long koa cases. A case on the wall is filled with plain-looking beach sand. A goose-neck wand over the top offers a microphotography camera that magnifies glowing Ni'ihau shells (Leptothyra verruca, Eupliea varians, Graphicomassa margarita) of every color, giving the viewer an idea what it might be like to spend a lifetime finding, cleaning and stringing these gems of the oeean, smaller than the head of a pin. During the exhibit, Ni'ihau shell lei by Pam Dow and her associates are available for purchase at the Bishop Museum gift shop. After the exhibition, their lei will be available for purchase onee again at Native Books/Nā Mea Hawai'i at Ward Center. ■ Lynn Cook i.s a loeal freelance journalist sharmg the arts and culture ofHawai'i with a glohal auāienee.

Exhibition What: Ni'ihau Shell Lei: Oeean 0rigins, Living Traditions When: 0ngoing through Jan. 27 (closed Tuesdays and Christmas Day) Where: Bishop Museum J.M. Long Gallery Cost: Regular museum admission lnfo: bishopmuseum. orgor 847-3511

Pamela Ka'ilikini Dow, seated, with Sherlin Kanani Beniamina, left, and Iwalani Kanahele, practitioners of the art of Ni'ihau shell lei making. - Photo: tynn Cook

Lei from the Rick & Chuna Ni'ihau Shell Lei Collection. - Courtesy: Dave Franzen, 2013