Ruffling Feathers: Hawaiian Feather Art, 1770-2012

The feather-work of ancient Hawai'i has been admired by societies of the Western world for centuries. But for as long as it has been an object of curiosity and awe, this creative form has been relegated to the class of 'craft' within art historical discussions. Doing so ignores featherwork as a continuing and vital fine arts tradition within the Hawaiian Islands, a living art worthy of study, conservation and esteem. Though featherwork is deeply rooted in a centuries-old artistic practice combining cultural meaning, religious significance and political power, today it functions on a global scale, playing a major role in the creation of identity, on both an individual and national scale. Within the process of identity formation, featherwork creates and conflates space, the theoretical concept of an atmospheric locale, and place, the concept of a specific location. Often overlooked in the current art-historical literature, the absence of a thorough study of how feather-works function contextually to form identities leaves a significant and unfortunate gap that ignores the importance of the social, political, and cultural structures of both ancient and modern Hawai'i. This dissertation seeks to address that absence by examining feather-arts in their entirety; providing a history of feather-work, both within Hawai'i and more broadly throughout the Pacific, an overview of the variants of known feather-work, their symbolism, construction techniques, the contemporary feather-artists of Hawai'i, and their museological treatment through a variety of theoretical approaches. Doing so allows for a modern contextualization of Hawaiian feather-work through a culturally sensitive lens.