Celebrating identity, land and kinship

The brilliance of Pacific photography is set to be affirmed in an exhibit of historical and contemporary works in Hawai'i next week, curator Floyd Takeuchi says.

Pasefika 2024 will be held in Honolulu’s Downtown Art Center, featuring 13 artists - 10 of whom are Pacific Islanders who live in Hawai'i and three Americans who have extensive experience in the region.

"The show is the third of its kind held in the last two years at the Downtown Art Center," Takeuchi told Pacific Mornings' William Terite.

"These are believed to be the first fine arts exhibitions that feature contemporary artworks by Pacific Islanders who live in Hawai'i, rather than traditional arts and crafts from the islands."

Watch Floyd Takeuchi's interview below.

All three exhibits have been curated by Takeuchi, a Marshall Islands-born American journalist, who has covered Pacific Islands affairs for 47 years.

He said the Downtown Art Center is a not-for-profit community facility that provides some of the best and largest gallery spaces in Hawai'i, room for art classes, and a literal home for various arts groups.

"The Pacific-oriented exhibitions are part of the center’s commitment to increasing understanding of Hawaii’s Pacific Islander community, which is made up primarily of islanders from the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and, Palau.

"It [Pasefika 2024] started with an exhibit actually that I did about a year and a half ago featuring nine Micronesian women, women of Micronesian ancestry who live in Hawai'i or worked in Hawai'i at the time.

"I had them all wear a skirt that many Micronesian women wear, that's scalloped at the bottom and heavily embroidered, that is, associated with the immigrant population here.

"Quite frankly, many people in Hawai'i have a negative view of the Micronesians as the most recent immigrant group to the islands. It's been the case for every immigrant group that's come here, whether they're Filipinos or Japanese, like my ancestry, or Chinese before that.

"So I had them all wear the skirt for a photo shoot and challenge the viewers to look at them and say, oh, Micronesian immigrant. And then when they read who they are, their CEOs, law partners, diplomats, and challenged their stereotypes. That was the beginning."

The response was strong, he said. "The center said, 'Well, let's run with this'. And we were now working with Micronesian arts groups to encourage them to get financially stable and give them opportunities to show their work."

Pasefika24 will be held at the same time the Festival of Pacific Arts, FestPac, is being held - 6-16 June - and Takeuchi said there would be a lot of attention on the regional artists.

"We are using our resources to be part of that process too. And so it's good timing. Life is all about good timing and this is the timing that is good for us.

"We have some very exciting young artists. Lisette Yamase, a woman in her late 20s from Pohnpei and Chuuk in Micronesia, is a charcoal-portrait artist.

"She has done some amazing work by taking traditional myths and legends and turning them into people who you can identify with.

"We have Eric Kano, a young man who is also from Chuuk and of Micronesian and Filipino ancestry. He is a fashion designer and a graphic designer and he started his line of casual wear based on Micronesian themes. We will have some of that on display.

"We also have a group of ladies from the Marshall Islands, more traditional in their arts. They're master weavers. And in the Marshall Islands, the women's role is traditionally defined by their passing on their knowledge of weaving to their daughters. And their work is always very popular."

Floyd Takeuchi, pictured left, says the diversity of indigenous art reveals complex perspectives on the Pacific's past and the deep significance of these artworks to native and non-native communities.

He said it was going to be an "incredibly vibrant" time for Hawai'i.

"It's the first time for Hawai'i, and we are quite frankly playing catch-up. Hawai'i's been at the festivals for many years and has been a beneficiary of Pacific hospitality. So, this is the time to show what we can do here. It's a very exciting time.

"The reason we were focusing on contemporary art is that it's the same in the South Pacific too. Large groups of populations have moved to places like Auckland, Sydney, and Honolulu, and this is showing shows what the communities are all about. And arts are the best way to do it, I think."

Takeuchi has been a reporter and editor with four daily newspapers in Guam, Hawai'i, and Fiji. He also served as news director of Hawai'i Public Radio and was an Asian financial markets correspondent for Bloomberg News’ television and radio service based in Tokyo, Japan.

Takeuchi was editor-publisher of Pacific Magazine, Hawaii Business Magazine, and president of the publications’ parent company, PacificBasin Communications.

He is currently a writer-photographer, who has published four books and has had his photography featured in 15 exhibits in Hawai'i, as well as solo shows in Micronesia, and Tokyo, Japan.

In 2000, Takeuchi was named Small Business Journalist of the Year for the United States by the US Small Business Administration.

Takeuchi earned an undergraduate degree in journalism with honours from Boston University, and a master’s degree in Pacific Islands Studies from the University of Hawai'i-Manoa while on an East-West Centre full
ride scholarship.

"I'm really stoked with what I did there. I made the choice to leave corporate journalism where I was a company president and a publisher of magazines for storytelling again, this time with a camera.

"Your best photo is always your next one. But I've been very fortunate to have communities welcome me in and it's been a good relationship."

He said the arts festivals would come at a very good time because the tourism market in the US state has been "pretty wobbly" following the post-pandemic recovery.

"It was strong for a few months and then it got very weak. I think this will be a big shot in the arm for Hawai'i tourism, and it'll be a chance for locals to see the full breadth of the magnificent arts of the Pacific, which is hard to find otherwise.

"I think the arts are the best indicator of the health of a community. And if that is the case, we're in pretty good shape in Hawai'i despite our challenges. I'm looking forward to seeing the response to our show."

The Pasefika 2024 Art Exhibition will be held from 4 June to 27 July.