Children’s Festival at National Museum of the American Indian in New York Celebrates Native Hawai’i

Surfboard-carving presentations by surfing legend Tom Pohaku Stone and Hawaiian dance with Kaimana Chee are some of the highlights of this year’s Children’s Festival at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York Saturday, May 17, and Sunday, May 18, from noon to 5 p.m. Celebrating the cultures of Native Hawai’i, the festival also includes hands-on workshop activities to create leis and kukui nut bracelets. The museum and the day’s events are free.

Stone is an award-winning Native Hawaiian surfer and a highly skilled practitioner of traditional surfboard carving. As a significant sport and form of cultural expression in Hawai’i for more than 1,500 years, surfing tells a story of technological innovation and cultural survival among the islands’ indigenous communities. Stone, who holds an M.A. in Pacific Island Studies specializing in ancient Hawaiian sports from the University of Hawai’i, will create a traditional surfboard on-site at the museum, transforming a wood slab shipped from Holualoa, Kona, into a finely tuned board while sharing the history and traditions of this ancient and uniquely Hawaiian sport with visitors. Dynamic film footage of Stone and other Native Hawaiian surfers riding waves will be the backdrop for his carving activities.

Chee is an accomplished Native Hawaiian dance leader from the Hulau O’Aulani Native Hawaiian School. With a mission to teach and perpetuate the cultures, traditions and values of the people of Hawai’i through dances, languages, arts, music, history and customs, Hulau O’Aulani was founded in 1996 in Bowie, Md. Chee will lead an interactive, participatory hula dance program and share stories of Hawaiian culture as told through dance. Traditional Hawaiian music will be performed by his father, Sadrian Chee, who lives in Hawai’i.

Support for the Children’s Festival and the museum’s “Circle of Dance” celebration of Native dance throughout the hemisphere has been provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York is located at One Bowling Green in New York City, across from Battery Park. The museum is free and open every day (except Dec. 25) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Thursdays until 8 p.m. For information, call (212) 514-3700 or visit www.AmericanIndian.si.edu.

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