Hawaiʻi: a Kingdom Crossing Oceans Exhibition @ British Museum, London - A dazzling celebration of the rich artistry of Hawaiian makers

Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans

British Museum, London

15 January – 25 May 2026

A bold new exhibition at the British Museum examines the compelling history of Hawaiʻi and its long-standing ties with the United Kingdom. Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans is a dazzling celebration of the rich artistry of Hawaiian makers, past present and future, the global journeys of Hawaiian royals and leaders, and the enduring resonance of their story in today's world.

kapa (barkcloth) 

© The Trustees of the British Museum

Kapa (barkcloth) is made from the inner bark (bast) of the paper mulberry and other plant fibres. As a medium, kapa is a connector between the land, the people and the gods. Different forms of kapa had many uses, from everyday life to ritual practice, including as chiefly garments, spatial dividers, blankets and wrappings for bones.

The exhibition commemorates 200 years since a series of events including the visit of Hawaiian King Liholiho (Kamehameha II) and Queen Kamāmalu to London with a royal delegation to seek alliance and protection from the Crown. This journey to the capital included a visit to the British Museum – the first record of Native Hawaiian aliʻi (chiefs and royals) at the Museum. Building from this moment, which marked a turning point in the shared history of the kingdoms of Hawaiʻi and the United Kingdom, the exhibition tells a compelling story of movement, allyship and cultural exchange.

Portrait of Kamehameha II and Portrait of Kamāmalu, 1824

Hand-coloured lithographs by John Hayter

© The Trustees of the British Museum

These portraits realised by British court artist John Hayter represent Hawaiian King Liholiho and Queen Kamāmalu. They were made in London while the king, the queen, and a Hawaiian royal delegation accompanying them awaited an audience with George IV.

Settled around AD 1000 by skilled Polynesian seafarers navigating by the stars and following the flight of migratory birds, the Hawaiian archipelago is often remembered in the UK as the place where Captain James Cook lost his life during a voyage of exploration in the islands in 1778–79. Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans acknowledges this moment while focusing on movements, stories and voyages initiated from Hawaiʻi itself. Shaped together with Native Hawaiian knowledge-bearers, the exhibition introduces audiences to a remarkable and seldom-seen collection of early Hawaiian treasures combined with striking contemporary works, tracing the journeys that brought these works to London and reflecting on their continued meaning for the people of Hawaiʻi today. 

ʻUmeke kiʻi (bowl with figure)

© The Trustees of the British Museum

This bowl likely represents a chiefly person in a serving position. Their high status is indicated by their headdress and loincloth.

The exhibition features around 150 extraordinary objects and artworks including many never seen in the UK. Among the highlights is a magnificent ʻahu ʻula (feathered cloak) sent in 1810 by the first king of unified Hawaiʻi, Kamehameha I, to King George III, the largest known example of its kind. Lent by His Majesty The King from the Royal Collection, the cloak will be on display for the first time in over 100 years, alongside the Hawaiian king's original letter requesting support and protection from the British Crown.

Kiʻi (image) of the god Kū

© The Trustees of the British Museum

This kiʻi (image) represents Kū, a Hawaiian god whose realm includes warfare and governance. This god figure probably originates from a religious site on the island of Hawaiʻi, the largest of the Hawaiian archipelago. It may have been brought to England about 200 years ago by Hawaiian king Liholiho (Kamehameha II), who came to London to seek alliance and protection from the British Crown. He stands here wearing a loincloth, which was made for him and fitted by Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners.

Opening the space and greeting the visitors on the stairs of the Great Court is a powerful, nine-foot kiʻi (image) of the god Kū, the god of warfare and governance, dressed with a contemporary loincloth and standing atop a pole rediscovered inside a historical plinth ahead of the exhibition. A finely carved drum accompanied by an ancient chant recounting early Polynesian migrations to Hawaiʻi pulls the visitors into the gallery. Inside, a stunning bowl with figure, recently returned from loan to Hawaiʻi's Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, embodies the continued movements of people and objects between the Pacific and the United Kingdom, while the Anglo-Franco proclamation of 1843, on loan from The National Archives, highlights the UK and France's formal recognition of Hawaiʻi's independence and emphasises diplomatic bonds between these nations. 

The making of Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans is grounded in a renewed curatorial approach developed with Native Hawaiian knowledge-bearers. A co-stewarded process, the creation of the exhibition involved community partners in a holistic manner, from the shaping of the narrative to the design of the gallery, the meticulous conservation of ancestral treasures and the inclusion of ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) throughout the space. 

Kapulani Landgraf

ʻAuʻa, Portrait of Haunani-Kay Trask 

Photographic print

© Kapulani Landgraf 2025

ʻWe are not American’, declared Native Hawaiian political leader and scholar Haunani-Kay Trask (1949–2021). She was speaking on the hundredth anniversary of the 1893 coup that overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom. Trask is depicted here by the artist Kapulani Landgraf as part of a series of 108 photographic portraits of Kānaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiians). As well as Trask’s famous declaration, Landgraf has added ‘He hawaiʻi au mau a mau’ (‘I am Hawaiian forever and ever’), a continuing affirmation of Hawaiian identity.

Building from years of collaborations through the Benioff Oceania Programme (2020-2024), the show highlights a commitment to transforming and humanising museum practice – a dimension that is made palpable through a trail of content that 'breaks the fourth wall' to offer visitors a glimpse into this collective process. As objects, people and voices gather in the space, the gallery becomes a meeting ground, bringing agency and purpose into view and showing how the stories on display were shaped – stories as relevant today as they were two centuries ago.

Dr Alice Christophe, Curator and Head of Oceania at the British Museum said: 'This co-stewarded exhibition is a tribute to Native Hawaiian makers, past and present. At its core, it tells the story of the deep and layered relationship between Hawaiʻi and the United Kingdom, reflecting on care, sovereignty and the complexity of allyship. We hope this show will spark conversations and uplift people in the archipelago and beyond.'

Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the British Museum commented: 'Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans embodies the Museum's commitment to working with communities to tell shared histories in new ways. This extraordinary exhibition not only reveals the beauty and significance of Hawaiian culture, but also highlights the journeys of people, objects and stories across time and oceans, showing how these connections continue to resonate and inspire today.'

BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON

The Joseph Hotung Great Court Gallery

www.britishmuseum.org

Kay WalkingStick and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith @ Saint Louis Art Museum

Saint Louis Art Museum purchases works by Native American women artists: Kay WalkingStick and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

The Saint Louis Art Museum has acquired works by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and Kay WalkingStick, deepening the museum’s commitment to Native artists with the addition of three critical pieces to the collection.

The acquisitions address gaps in the museum’s collection of works by contemporary Native American artists and leave a significant legacy at the museum for the recent exhibition “Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s-1970s,” an important presentation of modern Native art and the first exhibition of this size at SLAM.

Kay WalkingStick, American and Cherokee, born 1935 

“Personal Icon”, 1975; 

Acrylic, wax, and ink on canvas; 42 x 48 inches; 

Saint Louis Art Museum, The Siteman Contemporary Art Fund, and funds given by Barbara and Andy Taylor, the Werner Family, John and Susan Horseman, Christine Taylor-Broughton and Lee Broughton, Nancy and Kenneth Kranzberg, Pam and Greg Trapp, Mr. and Mrs. Gary Wolff, Dottie and Kent Kreh, Dwyer Brown and Nancy Reynolds, Suzy Besnia and Vic Richey, Clare M. Davis and David S. Obedin, Yvette Drury Dubinsky and John Paul Dubinsky, in memory of Pauline E. Ashton, and Kiku Obata; 

© Kay WalkingStick

“We are in a moment of heightened visibility for Native artists across the country but especially in St. Louis,” said Min Jung Kim, the museum’s Barbara B. Taylor Director. “Adding these works to our collection is a way to continue to shed light on these vital artists, whose art speaks to both personal histories and wider cultural concerns. These acquisitions are also essential to the continued diversification of both our collection and our programming, ensuring that we provide our community with opportunities to see and experience the fullest view of human creativity from many different cultural and aesthetic traditions.”

One of the works—WalkingStick’s “Personal Icon”—was recently featured in the final gallery of the museum’s summer 2023 exhibition, “Action/Abstraction Redefined.” “Personal Icon” is among the last major works available from a pivotal era in her career. During the mid-1970s, WalkingStick turned away from figuration and experimented with different media while also investigating Native history for the first time. The 1975 painting repeats a low, swelling arc against a gridded frame of red encaustic; these experimental forms and materials shaped her practice subsequently.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Enrolled Salish, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, MT, born 1940; 

“State Names Map: Cahokia”, and “Trade Canoe: Osage Orange”, 2023; 

Saint Louis Art Museum, The Siteman Contemporary Art Fund, and funds given by Barbara and Andy Taylor,The Werner Family, John and Susan Horseman, Christine Taylor-Broughton and Lee Broughton, Nancy and Kenneth Kranzberg, Pam and Greg Trapp, Mr. and Mrs. Gary Wolff, Dottie and Kent Kreh, Dwyer Brown and Nancy Reynolds, Suzy Besnia and Vic Richey, Clare M. Davis and David S. Obedin, Yvette Drury and John Paul Dubinsky, Judith Weiss Levy, Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Lowenhaupt, and Mary Ann and Andy Srenco; 

© Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, Courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York; 

Image courtesy of Counterpublic, Photograph by Jon Gitchoff

Using collage and gestural painting, Quick-to-See Smith’s “State Names Map: Cahokia” reconfigures the United States map, using text with only those state names based on Indigenous words. In “Trade Canoe: Osage Orange,” the artist created the frame of a canoe using wood from an Osage Orange tree, and inside the canoe are cast-resin objects—mirrors, guns, liquor and a beaver—that highlight the destructive qualities of European trade goods on Indigenous peoples.

Both “State Names Map: Cahokia” and “Trade Canoe: Osage Orange” are new works that were featured in Counterpublic, a triennial civic exhibition that showcased contemporary art in locations across St. Louis from April through July. Nearly one-quarter of the artists in the 2023 Counterpublic cited Native heritage.

Quick-to-See Smith’s work has appeared in more than 90 solo exhibitions across the country, most recently “Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map” at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. SLAM’s collection includes the mixed media painting “I See Red: Migration” and a suite of prints produced at Washington University’s Island Press including “Celebrate 40,000 Years of American Art.”

SAINT LOUIS ART MUSEUM

One Fine Arts Drive, Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri 63110

www.slam.org

Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field @ National Museum of the American Indian, New York - Donovan Quintero, Tailyr Irvine, Russel Albert Daniels

Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field

National Museum of the American Indian, New York

Through March 12, 2023

National Museum of the American Indian, New York

Photo courtesy of the Museum

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York presents “Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field,” an exhibition of photo essays by three Indigenous photojournalists. “Developing Stories” was originally expected to open at the museum in March 2020 and a version of it exists as an online exhibition. 

“Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field” is a series of photo essays created by Native photojournalists in collaboration with the National Museum of the American Indian. Each photographer explores an issue that is of deep personal interest and touches the lives of Native people in a specific community. The essays feature compelling photography and thought-provoking insights into contemporary Native life and, in so doing, nuanced perspectives on American experiences that are largely invisible to mainstream society.

“Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field” is curated by Cecile R. Ganteaume. Collaborators Tristan Ahtone (Kiowa), Editor at Large at Grist and John Smock, director of photojournalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York, provided editorial and technical expertise to the museum and photojournalists throughout the development of each photo essay.

Photo Essays 

Russel Albert Daniels (Diné descent and Ho-Chunk descent), “The Genízaro Pueblo of Abiquiú.” Daniels brings attention to a nearly 300-year-old community in New Mexico that was born out of violence and slavery. In this essay, he examines how, through annual festivals and feasts and their relationship to the land, Genízaros—detribalized descendants of freed Native American slaves—have maintained their sense of history and identity to the present day.

Tailyr Irvine (Salish and Kootenai), “Reservation Mathematics: Navigating Love in Native America.” Irvine examines the legacy of U.S. government regulations affecting Native Americans’ most personal decisions. Specifically, she focuses on the challenge blood quantum requirements (the amount of tribal affiliation in a person’s ancestry) pose for young Native American couples who want children and want them enrolled in their tribe. In early 1900s, the U.S. government began imposing this system on tribes as a means of defining and limiting citizenship. While some tribes still use this method for determining eligibility for tribal enrollment, other Native nations use documentation of a person’s descent from an enrollee on a designated tribal roll or census records.

Donovan Quintero (Diné), “The COVID-19 Outbreak in the Navajo Nation.” Photographer and journalist for the Navajo Times, Quintero explores how the pandemic affected the everyday lives of the Diné over the course of a year. The images highlight the resiliency of the Diné and the critical roles played by healthcare workers, police, council members, and unsung heroes of the pandemic.

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN

Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, One Bowling Green, New York, NY 10004

americanindian.si.edu

3/11/2022 - 12/3/2023