Exploring the intimate relationship between Hawaiian quilts, post-colonialism, and ecological disaster, research curator Marenka Thompson-Odlum traverses Hawai'i through the Poakalani quilting group and fifteen extraordinary quilts, newly commissioned by Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. The ahupua'a is an ancient land division system – extending from the highest regions of Hawai'i's uplands (mauka) to the ocean (makai) – representative of the Hawaiian people's sacred knowledge and reverence towards the environment. Once a thriving and finely balanced system, the colonisation of the Hawaiian Islands coupled with the existential threat posed by the climate crisis has put the ahupua'a severely at risk.
120 pages, 16 x 23 cm, paperback, Common Threads Press (London)