Department Exhibits for 2007
- The Ammatoa
- Night of the Trees
- Brahmi Script of Ancient India
- Japanese Cuisine: Tradition and Modern Adaptations
- Center for Pacific Islands Studies
- Summer Reading: Mystery Novels
- Don Ho: We Still Remember You
- Stripping in Hawaii
- Reports of War and (Peace): Melanesia and the Pacific Press
- Wish You Were Here: Postcard Souvenirs from Hawaii and the Pacific
Asia Collection
The Ammatoa: People Inside the Frontier
Photographs by Sapril Akhmacy
In the South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia there is a village called Tana Toa. At the center of the village is a gate that marks the boundry between two worlds. Tana Lohea is the outside world, and Tana Kekea is where the Ammatoa people live surrounded by dense green forest and their own distinct culture.
They always wear black as part of their religion, Patuntung. They believe God watches them from the sacred forest, giving them messages called pakpasang. The messages passed through the generations are called pasang. Together, the pakpasang and pasang give direction to the Ammatoa, define their relationship to the creator, and teach them that they live at once in the material world and in the spiritual.
This exhibition shows several images of the Ammatoa People related to their daily life activies, ritual ceremonies, portraits, and their landscape environment.
The Night Life of Trees
The Night Life of Trees exhibition brings together work by Bhajju Shyam, Ram Singh Urveti and Durga Bai, three of the finest living artists of the Gond tribal tradition.
The exhibition consists of original artwork from the book The Night Life of Trees, which pays tribute to the beauty of the natural world and the interrelatedness of all life. The Gond tribe of Madhya Pradesh in central India are traditionally forest dwellers, and trees form the focal point of their cosmos. They believe that trees are hard at work during the day, providing shade, shelter and nourishment for all; but at night, when all the daytime visitors have left, the spirits of the trees reveal themselves.
It is these luminous spirits that are captured in The Night Life of Trees a fascinating and haunting foray into the Gond imagination, in which the aesthetic and spiritual aspects of the natural world are inseparable, and each image is an article of faith.
The tribe works in a ritual and functional art style with distinctive decorative elements, mostly painted on walls of houses, and using natural colours. Each canvas in the exhibition is accompanied by text narrated by the artists themselves describing a legend, myth or folktale associated with each individual tree.
Brahmi Script of Ancient India
The writing systems of Hindi (Indo-European language family), Khmer (Mon Khmer), Lao (SW Tai), and Thai (SW Tai) all share a common ancenstor: the Brahmi Script of Ancient India.
Ms. Kanjana Thepboriruk, a Ph.D student in Linguistics and a student employee in Asia Collection, created the beautiful exhibit that shows the similarities of the four writing systems.
Japanese Cuisine: Tradition and Modern Adaptations
thru December 2006
Asia Collection
Fourth floor, Hamilton Library
When many Americans think of Japanese food, they think sushi. But Japanese cuisine encompasses so much more with an ever-present emphasis on freshness, seasonality and texture. Also of utmost importance is aesthetic appeal, which extends to implements, utensils and the packaging of food.
This display offers a small glimpse into the wonderful world of Japanese cuisine, focusing on some of its traditional foods and implements, its modern counterparts and international influences. Japanese cuisine is not static and continues to incorporate ingredients and techniques from other cuisines that make the food oishii (delicious)!!!
Science and Technology
Tuberculosis Exhibit
To find the answers to these questions check out the SciTech exhibit up until the first week in April.
- What Vivien Leigh, George Orwell, Chopin, and the 3 Bronte sisters had in common?
- March 24, 2007 is World ______ Day.
- The rate of ____ in the U.S. is 4.8, in Hawaii the rate is 8.8.
- Leahi Hospital was first called the Honolulu Home for the _________________.
- 2007 is the 125th anniversary for the discovery of what?
Answers available by clicking the first image below.
Government Documents
When the University of Hawai´i was established in 1907, it was automatically designated a depository for federal government documents, as were other land grant colleges, by a law enacted March 1, 1907. Federal depository libraries maintain collections of federal government information. This exhibit highlights federal government involvement in Hawai´i over the past 100 years and features government documents and maps from the Library's collections.
This display was created by the staff of the Government Documents & Maps Department:
Dave Bowman, Alice Kim, Karen Brown, Salim Mohammed, Lydia d´Addario, Gwen Sinclair, Carol Hasegawa, Mabel Suzuki, Lori Horiuchi, Ross Togashi, Clara Inouye.
Special Collections
Center for Pacific Islands Studies
The Center For Pacific Islands Studies, in the University of Hawai´i at Manoa School of Pacific and Asian Studies, is both an academic department and a larger home for initiatives that bring together people and resources to promote an understanding of the Pacific Islands and issues of concern to Pacific Islanders.
Summer Reading: Who Dun Its Mystery Novels of Hawai´i
Want some fun reading ideas for the summer -- to read at the beach, relax
on the lanai, under the cool shade of a tree? On display are a sampling
of the "who dun it", mystery novels which take place in Hawai´i.
On exhibit during the month of July in the Special Collections Reading Room, Hamilton Library, 5th floor.
DON HO: We Still Remember You
Special Collections pays tribute to the icon, the legend, the star, the man that has brought Hawai´i to the world. Check out our display of song books, articles, news and the music of one of Hawai'i's most memorable and loved local boy.
Special Collections Reading Room, Hamilton Library, 5th floor On display in June.
From the first story in the premiere issue (v.1 n.1) of Aloha magazine (January 1978) DON HO by Jeannette Paulson:
What is the allure of the man whom tourist have crowned the most famous star of the 50th state? What does he do on that stage that brings him so much fame and fortune. He must be doing something right.
He's packing them in to his two shows nightly, with sell-out crowds of about 550. That´s over 300,000 a year who come to watch Don Ho "do his thing."
From The Honolulu Advertiser (April 2007) Legendary Crooner Brought Islands to the World by Dave Koga:
Said entertainer Danny Kaleikini: "Don brought Hawai´i to the world."
For many tourists, Ho had become a vacation constant. "I´ve met people who have come to Hawai´i 40 times and they´ve seen him every time," said comedian Andy Bumatai, who performed in Ho's last show.
In some ways, Ho´s success defied logic. A self-taught musician who paid his dues at Honey´s, a Kane´ohe bar owned by his parents, "he would be the first to admit he might not be the most talented one in the room," Bumatai said.
And yet ...
"I´d take people to Duke´s to see him and after a couple of minutes, they´d say, ‘What´s with this guy? He can barely sing. He mumbles. Let's get the hell out of here,’" said Eddie Sherman, the former columnist. "I´d say, ‘Just wait a while,’ and two hours later they´re standing there telling me this is the best show they´ve ever seen. "That was the mystery. He had a unique gift. He was able to reach people in a way few others could do."
Selected comic STRIPS and comic books in the Hawaiian Collection about Hawaii and/or by Hawaii artists Every Sunday morning, we reach for the newspaper and we flip to the comics (come on and admit that you all do this, too). Comics (or, less commonly, sequential art) is a form of visual art consisting of images which are commonly combined with text, often in the form of speech balloons or image captions. Originally used to illustrate caricatures and to entertain through the use of amusing and trivial stories, it has by now evolved into a literary medium with many subgenres. [from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic] Check out our selection of comics on display in the Special Collections Reading Room until the end of May.
Reports of War and (Peace): Melanesia and the Pacific Press
During the latter portion of the 20th century and through the present day, various Pacific regions have been shaken by war and social unrest, most of which continues to be ignored by European and American media outlets. Not so in the Pacific, where a very active news media has covered these conflicts extensively.
In conjunction with "Paradise Lost and Saved: Wartime Photographs of the South Pacific," (currently on exhibit in Hamilton Library's Bridge and Phase II galleries), Hamilton Library's Special Collections reading room is displaying "Reports of War (and Peace): Melanesia and the Pacific Press," which draws from the Pacific Collection's extensive regional news media holdings, as well as from various post-conflict analyses published in the Pacific and elsewhere. Display runs through February.
Wish You Were Here: Postcard Souvenirs from Hawaii and the Pacific
Vintage to modern, wildlife and sightseeing, hula to surfing, royalty to sugar cane workers. A colorful display of postcard collections/books in the Hamilton Hawaiian and Pacific Collection. On display until the end of January.
