Bernice A. Akamine (born December 1, 1949) is an American artist and Hawaiian rights activist. Her visual art has taken multiple forms, including glass and feathers, and she teaches traditional Hawaiian art techniques such as the creation of

kapa Kapa is a fabric made by native Hawaiians from the bast fibres of certain species of trees and shrubs in the orders Rosales and Malvales. Description and uses It is similar to ''tapa'' found elsewhere in Polynesia (the Hawaiian phoneme corre ...

cloth and natural dyeing using Hawaiian plants. Akamine is an advocate for Indigenous land rights, using her artwork to bring attention to the colonial invasion of Hawaii and its continued effects on the native Hawaiian population.

Early life and education

Bernice A. Akamine was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on December 1, 1949. Her heritage is kānaka maoli (Native Hawaiian) and Japanese American. Akamine's grandmother was a kahuna lāʻau lapaʻau, a traditional Hawaiian healer, and her mother, Audrey Elliott, was a

lauhala ''Lauhala'', ''lau'' meaning "leaf" in the Hawaiian language, refers to the leaves of the hala tree ''(Pandanus tectorius)''. Uses The hala tree is of great cultural, health and economic importance in many Pacific Islands. The fruit of the tree i ...

weaver. Akamine earned two degrees from the University of Hawaii at Manoa: a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in glass in 1994 and a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

degree in sculpture and glass in 1999. She studied multiple traditional Hawaiian art forms at the university, such as lei hulu (feather leis) and

weaving. She has also completed graduate work at Central Washington University in natural resource management.

Artwork

Akamine's artwork focuses on environmental and cultural issues, especially the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the ongoing

Hawaiian sovereignty movement The Hawaiian sovereignty movement ( haw, ke ea Hawaiʻi), is a grassroots political and cultural campaign to re-establish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom of Hawaii due to desire for sovereignty, self-determination, and self-gove ...

. She is a kumu (expert teacher) of the methods of creating and using waiho‘olu‘u (natural plant dyes). During a 2005 internship at the

Amy B. H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden The Amy B. H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden is a Hawaiian botanical garden near Captain Cook, Hawaii in the Kona District on the Big Island of Hawaii. The gardens closed for the public on January 31, 2016. They are slated to re-open on Februa ...

, she documented the colors created with these dyes, pairing 20 samples of dye with plant photos. Akamine creates

, cloth created by beating bark. She was featured in a 2015 documentary, ''Ka Hana Kapa'', along with other kapa makers and has served as a consultant to the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, helping them identify the plants that made the kapa colors on items in their collections. She has also created contemporary baskets inspired by traditional symbols of Hawaiian nobility, using the feathers of small birds. Akamine says her art "is meant to make a statement and preserve cultural knowledge."

Selected projects

* Kalo (2015): large-scale traveling installation featuring 87 individual kalo plants made from pōhaku (stone) and newsprint * Hinalua’iko’a (2017): suspended and freestanding beaded sculptures inspired by traditional Hawaiian fish traps, oceanic forms, and Kumulipo, the Hawaiian creation chant * Papahanaumoku (2018): mixed media pieces of glass and used bullet casing created in response to the

2018 Hawaii false missile alert On the morning of Saturday, January 13, 2018, a ballistic missile alert was accidentally issued via the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alert System over television, radio and cellphones in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The alert stat ...

* Ku‘u One Hānau (2019): five tents made with the Hawaiian flag drawing attention to homelessness within the kānaka maoli (Native Hawaiian) population

Awards and fellowships

* Pilchuck Partners Scholarship to Pilchuck Glass School, 1995 * Native Arts Research Fellowship,

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

, 1999 * Community Scholar Award,

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7. ...

, 2012 * Native Hawaiian Artist Fellowship,

Native Arts and Cultures Foundation The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports Native American artists, culture bearers, and Native-led arts organizations, providing them with support through fellowships and project funding. ...

, 2015

References

External links

"HB19 Artist Bernice Akamine"
4-minute video of Akamine describing her large-scale exhibit "Kalo" exhibited during the 2019 Honolulu Biennial
"How Kapa Is Made"
3-minute audio of Akamine discussing the origins of bark cloth {{DEFAULTSORT:Akamine, Bernice Living people 1949 births People from Honolulu University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni Artists from Hawaii 21st-century American women artists Native Hawaiian people American people of Native Hawaiian descent Native Hawaiian activists American textile artists