Chicago’s Legacy Hula: The Kaona
Belonging explores repatriation and the responsibilities museums have to Indigenous Nations and communities whose ancestors and cultural belongings have been held in museum collections.
Chicago’s Legacy Hula: The Kaona explores more than 130 years of Kānaka Maoli history, Hula, and cultural presence in Chicago. Beginning with the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, the exhibition highlights generations of practitioners who have sustained and shared Hula throughout the region.
Photographs, Hula instruments, regalia, kāhili, and personal stories illuminate the cultural knowledge and deeper meanings carried through Hula while honoring four Kumu Hula whose teaching and leadership have shaped its legacy in Chicago.
Originally developed by the Aloha Center Chicago and presented at the Field Museum, the exhibition has been adapted for the Gichigamiin Museum in continued partnership with the Aloha Center Chicago.
