Native Skywatchers - Hawaiian Star Compass, Mahalo Sea & Stars - Year 3
"Native Skywatchers - Hawaiian Star Compass - Kula 'Amakihi”
A Collaborative Research Project - Year 3
Our framework is "Two-Eyed Seeing". This was shared by Carola Knockwood (Mi'kmaw) and described by her Mi’kmaw elders: Etuaptmumk or Two-Eyed Seeing is learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledges and ways of knowing, and to use both these eyes for the benefit of all. (Bartlett, Marshall and Marshall 2012, 336)
Using a 10-week interdisciplinary, project-based co-learning, co-creating model, students in the Kula 'Amakihi program were asked to follow a professional design process to first brainstorm, evolve, conceptualize, and then fabricate a solution to the creative challenge:
Research Questions - Design Challenge:
-How do you express mahalo/put down thanks for life through soundscape using whale song, the star compass, mo'olelo, and movement?-Can you create empathy through soundscape performance to show what is the human's kuleana (responsibility) in relationship to ocean/land/sky environments?
The "Hawaiian Star Compass - Mahalo Sea & Stars" performance, installation, and exhibit premiered at the Wailoa Art Center in Hilo, Hawai'i March 2025.
"Native Skywatchers - Kula 'Amakihi - Hawaiian Star Compass, Mahalo Sea and Stars - Exhibit Highlights... March 2025
Native Skywatchers "Hawaiian Star Compass, Mahalo Sea & Stars", Wailoa Art Center highlights, Hilo, Hawai'i, March 2025 ©Native Skywatchers. All Rights Reserved.
Native Skywatchers-Kula 'Amakihi - Hawaiian Star Compass
Hawaiian Star Compass - Kālepa Baybayan version, led by Kumu Barbara Sarbin, Kula 'Amkihi Students and families' ©2025 All Rights Reserved.
Native Skywatchers-Kula 'Amakihi - Oli with Koholā
Oli (Chanting) Oli Mahalo, E Ho Mai led by B. Sarbin Kula 'Amkihi Students and families; Kona Coast, Koholā (Humpback Whales) Hydrophone recordings by A. Lee ©2025 All Rights Reserved.
Native Skywatchers-Kula 'Amakihi - Honu Hei by Nohea
Honu is the Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle and Hei refers to the traditional Hawaiian string figures. Created by Nohea, ©2025 All Rights Reserved.
Native Skywatchers-Kula 'Amakihi - Shyana Hula
Traditional Hula Created by Shyana, Pā mai ana ka Makani (Kona), Acknowledgement to Land of Birth-Sea, Sky, and Land ©2025 All Rights Reserved.
Native Skywatchers-Kula 'Amakihi - "Sarva Mangalam" Indian Dance
Created by Kanya Bernal and her students, ©2025 All Rights Reserved.
Native Skywatchers-Kula 'Amakihi - Hawaiian Proverb
Quote & translation by Larry Kimura. Used with permission. And Mahalo-Thank you, ©2025 All Rights Reserved.
Photo Gallery - Wailoa Art Center Exhibit - Hilo, Hawai'i, March 2025:
"Native Skywatchers - Kula 'Amakihi - Hawaiian Star Compass, Mahalo Sea and Stars - Large Scale Projections Featured in the Exhibit... March 2025
Acknowledgement: The video below contains footage from our friend and colleage, Kālepa Baybayan, in 2021 before his passing.
Native Skywatchers "Hawaiian Star Compass, Mahalo Sea & Stars", Large Scale Projection, Wailoa Art Center, Hilo, Hawai'i, March 2025 ©Native Skywatchers. All Rights Reserved.
"Native Skywatchers - Kula 'Amakihi - Hawaiian Star Compass, Mahalo Sea and Stars - Digital Narratives Featured in the Exhibit... March 2025
Native Skywatchers "Hawaiian Star Compass, Mahalo Sea and Stars", Digital Narrative, Wailoa Art Center, Hilo, Hawai'i, March 2025 ©Native Skywatchers. All Rights Reserved.
"Native Skywatchers - Kula 'Amakihi - Workshops for Hawaiian Star Compass... Jan 2025
Led by Kumu Barbara Sarbin, Kumu Tamara Dorett, Kuma Lisa Barnard, Kumu Stacey Morton, Kumu Kayla Costa, Annette S. Lee-PI, and the students in the Kula 'Amakihi Program at the Volcano School of Arts & Sciences'.
Native Skywatchers "Hawaiian Star Compass, Mahalo Sea & Stars" Workshop Highlights Reel (1:13), Wailoa Art Center highlights, Hilo, Hawai'i, Jan 2025 ©Native Skywatchers. All Rights Reserved.
PI Annette Lee & team designed and delivered hands-on experiential workshops with the students. Science-Art-Culutre workshops were held with students organized by grades. These experiential workshops helped students to understand concepts
of space and ocean pollution as well as the Hawaiian Star Compass. Students did a deep dive in movement, scientific storytelling, and theatre arts. The idea was to give students the opportunity to try out different ways to communicate their concepts in addition to creating digital narratives. Each student was to address an imbalance in the ecosystem around them, like light pollution or coral reef bleaching, and to come up with a solution of their own.
Native Skywatchers "Hawaiian Star Compass, Mahalo Sea & Stars" Workshop Highlights Reel (1:13), Wailoa Art Center highlights, Hilo, Hawai'i, Jan 2025 ©Native Skywatchers. All Rights Reserved.
PI Annette Lee & team designed and delivered hands-on experiential workshops with the students. Science-Art-Culutre workshops were held with students organized by grades. These experiential workshops helped students to understand concepts of space and ocean pollution as well as the Hawaiian Star Compass. Students did a deep dive in movement, scientific storytelling, and theatre arts. The idea was to give students the opportunity to try out different ways to communicate their concepts in addition to creating digital narratives. Each student was to address an imbalance in the ecosystem around them, like light pollution or coral reef bleaching, and to come up with a solution of their own.
Mahalo and great job everyone!
The Volcano School of Arts and Sciences, is a Hawaiian-Focused Public Charter School located in the rural town of Volcano, Hawai'i, adjacent to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island, Hawai'i. The school vision is Kūlia, 'Ohana. Aloha.... Learning through Volcano's unique natural and cultural resources to become creative global citizens. “Native Skywatchers”, is proud and honored to partner with our educator and student collaborators at the Volcano School of Arts and Sciences. In carrying out this work, we honor and recognize our dear friend and colleague Kālepa Baybayan who brought us together in 2019-2020. In memoriam: Kālepa Baybayan.
" Volcano School of the Arts & Sciences"
"Volcano School of the Arts & Sciences"
