Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 10, 1 ʻOkakopa 2014 — Native voices exhibit [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Native voices exhibit

Two years ago, a totem pole "carved with stories of healing, hope and knowledge" was on a cross-country journey to Bethesda, Maryland, to help launeh an exhibit on heahh and medicine among American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians. Carved by master carver Jewell Praying Wolf James of the Lummi

Indian Nation near Bellingham, Washington, the totem pole traveled 4,400 miles to the National Library of Medicine, where it's stood sentry outside as part of the "Native Voices: Native Peoples' Concepts of Heahh and Illness" exhibit, whieh will soon be ending its run. For those who

won't make it to the East Coast to see the original showcase, whieh features a 9-foot replica of the Polynesian voyaging eanoe Hōkūle'a, original artwork by Herb Kāne and medicinal plants from across the nahon, a traveling exhibit has been in Honolulu since July and will be shown consecutively in three venues. You ean see the exhibit, through Oct. 24, at Queen's Medical Center's Historical Room, on the ground floor as you exit to the dining room. From there, it will move to Kaka'ako to the Heahh Sciences Library at the University of Hawai'i John A. Bums School of Medicine for about two months and then to UH-Mānoa's Hamihon Library during the spring semester. The traveling exhibit offers a taste of the larger exhibit, through a series of banners and a collection of video vignettes on iPads featuring interviews with native healers, Western-trained physicians and other respected community members. (The entire video collection ean also be accessed through the NLM Native Voices app or online

at nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices.) Among the Native Hawaiians interviewed are Drs. Ben Young, Emmett Aluli and Kalani Brady, master navigatorNainoa Thompson, and Aunty Aggie Cope, Kamaki Kanahele and Kauila Clark of the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Heahh Center. The traveling exhibit at Queen's has attracted a few visitors a day, including those who are waiting for loved ones to eome out of surgery, says Diane Paloma, director of Queen's Heahh Systems' Native Hawaiian Heahh Program. She said the traveling exhibit raises awareness that "somebody has taken the time to document all of this knowledge (including from) many revered healers in our community." The traveling exhibit was initiated by the National Library of Medieine, whose director, Dr. Donald A.B. Lindberg, in bringing it to Hawai'i and other sites, answered a request by those he interviewed to showcase at least a small part of the resulting exhibit in the communities he visited. ■ — Lisa Asato

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"Native Voices" traveling exhibit by the National Library of Medicine 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays through Oct. 24 Queen's Historical Room at Queen's Medical Oenter Free ($5 parking) nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices

Diane Paloma, director of the Native Hawaiian Health Program at Queen's Health Systems, and Charley Myers, photographer and archives tech, made their way through the traveling exhibit. - Photo: Lisa Asato