Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 9, 1 September 2014 — THE NAKED TRUTH [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]
THE NAKED TRUTH
A series of photos brings beautiful attention to breast cancer
\ A / By Mary Aliee Ka'iulani Milham cancer survivor» 1 #i # died of bone
What started out as one woman's breast cancer ordeal has blossomed into a powerful artistic statement of strength and support by more than 130 Hawai'i women who posed topless - albeit artfully covered up - in a series of photographs to educate others about the disease, whieh disproportionately affects Native Hawaiian women. The first installation of photos was unveiled this summer at Pietures Plus Gallery Ward Warehouse in a surprise presentation honoring master lei hulu (feather lei) artist Paulette Kahalepuna and her late mother, Mary Lou Kekuewa, for their profound contributions to the art and preservation of Hawaiian feather work. Draped in layers of golden ( 'ilima) lei hulu, the devoted mother and daughter had posed two years before Kekuewa, a two-time breast
cancer in 2008. Kahalepuna's reaction to seeing their portrait said it all. She crossed the room immediately to press her forehead to the canvas to her mother's face, in a traditional honi greeting, a KITV news report showed. The portraits, mostly women who faced or were touched by the disease were conceived by kumu hula 'Iwalani Evelyn Walsh Tseu, whose nonprofit 'Iwalani Foundation raises breast cancer awareness. The idea for portraits eame to Tseu in in 2005, when, after surviving cervical cancer in her 30s, she was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. "I said to myself, 'Well, I just need to be educated here,' " says Tseu, the mother of three grown daughters. What she learned was dauntSEE BREAST GANGER ON PAGE 13
'lwalani Tseu, left, and Tasha Chang of Pictures Plus posed with the portrait of the late Mary Lou Kekuewa and her daughter, Paulette Kahalepuna. Ata surprise presentation this summer, Kahalepuna was so moved by the unveiling that she crossed the room to press her forehead against her mom's likeness in a traditional greeting known as honi. - Courtesy photo
BREAST CANCER Continued from page 11 ing: breast cancer strikes Native Hawaiians more than any other ethnic group in Hawai'i, where it also has the highest diagnosis rate for all cancers for women and will affect an estimated 1,090 Hawai'i women this year. Having envisioned the portraits for a calendar, providing breast cancer facts to increase education about the disease, Tseu's first step was to seek permission from kūpuna, starting with one of Hawai'i's great matriarchs, Agnes "Aunty Agnes" Cope. Tseu asked for a meeting and soon found herself standing before Cope and board members of the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Heahh Center. Telling the story of that meeting - how she explained her idea, waiting in apprehension for a response - still makes Tseu's voice tremble. "She (Cope) looked at me she goes:
' 'Iwalani, this is such an awesome idea. As long as you promise Aunty Agnes will be one of your models." "I dropped to my knees, truly . . . I put my head on her lap and I just cried, and cried and cried. I said: 'īhank you, Aunty. You just gave me all the strength and power that I need to have to move forward.' " With the support of matriarchs like Kekuewa and Cope, Hawaiian language scholar Edith McKinzie and kahu Nettie Tiffany, and scores of prominent women who eame forward to be photographed, Tseu felt immeasurably blessed. "That was my healing force," T seu recalls, adding, "all this love surrounding me as I was going through such horrible time in my life." The women, of various ages and ethnicities, posed alone or in groups, their bodies tastefully adorned with lei, 'ukulele and other props, for Honolulu photographer Marc Schechter, who shot the photos pro bono. As the collection grew beyond the limits of a calendar, it was
replaced by a new dream to publish the portraits in a book. Lacking the necessary funds, the portraits remained in limbo. Things changed after Tseu's hula student Tasha Chang was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer in 2010. Following 18 months of ehemotherapy, a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, Chang, who works at Pictures Plus, proposed putting the portraits on display and suggested transferring some to canvas. With the ehanee to have one portrait enlarged on a 40-by-60-inch canvas, Tseu thought immediately of Kahalepuna, who'd often inquired after the portrait she'd taken with her mother and had recently been diagnosed with abdominal cancer. The presentation event - complete with family, welcoming oli from kumu hula Miehael Casupang and Karl Veto Baker, and Kahalepuna's hula 'ohana fromHālau I Ka Wēkiu, and a state proclamation marking June 29 as Lei Hulu Day - was a peak in a big year for Kahalepuna, who was also honored by Bishop
Museum and PA'I Foundation's Maoli Arts Month this year as He Kumu Kukui (a source of light) as a master artist for her contributions to the preservation and perpetuation of Hawaiian feather work. Tseu plans to release the photos, some of whieh are available for purchase, in stages to raise funds to publish the portraits in a coffee-table book, to be titled Mag>uficent Women ofHcmaVi: Making a Dijference. A selection of the portraits will
remain on exhibit at Pictures Plus through October, whieh is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. A portion of the proceeds will go to The 'Iwalani Foundation to support breast cancer patients and survivors statewide. ■
Marv Ali.ce Ka'iulani Milham, a Portland, Oregon-based freelance journalist, is a former newspaper reporter and columnist from California 's Central Coast.
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