Paradise Lost and Found: A Conference on Indigenous Hawaiian Nature and Culture

Paradise Lost and Found: A Conference on Indigenous Hawaiian Nature and Culture

Co-sponsored and co-listed with DePaul University’s 2013-2014 “President's Signature Series”

Part of the Humanities Center’s “LSP 200 Multiculturalism Series”

May 9-10, 2014

Friday, May 9th: 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, May 10th: 1:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

DePaul University
Cortelyou Commons
2324 North Fremont St.
Chicago, IL

The DePaul Humanities Center, in celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, convenes a conferencecelebrating indigenous Hawaiian people, nature, art, history, and culture.  From May 9-10, we will investigate Hawaiian heritage, with interdisciplinary talks ranging from discussions of ecology and the problem of invasive species, to the troubled history of colonialism and the question of Hawaiian sovereignty.  Lectures on art will cover contemporary painting that investigates mixed-race identity, as well as the traditional folk songs of Japanese immigrant sugar workers.  The conference will also feature several live performances of Hawaiian music and dance featuring ukulele, singing, chanting, and hula. Opening Friday evening with a multi-media “lecture-performance” that uses dance and Hawaiian myth and history to investigate environmental ethics and the possibility of a moral theory that includes even nonliving things such as rocks, the conference continues on Saturday with a full day of lectures and performances from local and nationally renowned scholars and artists.

This conference is free and open to the general public.

For more information, phone 773-325-4580 or email <aperson@depaul.edu>.

Friday, May 9, 2014

6:00 – 8:00 pm            H. Peter Steeves, with Halau i Ka Pono - The Hula School of Chicago
                                    “O, Rocks!  Tell Us In Plain Words”


Saturday, May 10, 2104

1:00 – 1:50 pm            Franklin Odo
                                    The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
                                    “Folk Songs from Japanese Immigrant Sugar Workers in Hawai`i”

1:50 – 2:40 pm            Lori Pierce
                                    DePaul University, African and Black Diaspora Studies
                                    “U.S. Colonialism and Hawai`i History”
                                                          
2:40 – 3:00 pm            Coffee break

3:00 – 3:50 pm            Laura Kina
                                    DePaul University, Art, Media, and Design
                                    “Blue Hawai`i: Painting Okinawan Diaspora and Memory”

3:50 – 4:40 pm           Liam Heneghan
                                    DePaul University, Environmental Science and Studies
                                    “Hawai`i’s Natural History: It’s Both More and Less Than It Seems”

[4:40 – 6:00 pm          Reception/Dinner for invited guests only; please be sure to have your ticket ready]

6:00 – 6:30 pm            Jason Poole
                                    “Music from Molokai and Beyond: A Performance of Traditional and
                                    Original Hawaiian Folk Songs”

6:30 – 7:00 pm            June Tanoue, MPH, Kumu Hula
                                    Halau i Ka Pono - The Hula School of Chicago                                            
                                    “Hula is Life”

7:00 – 8:00 pm            Michael Pili Pang, MFA, Kumu Hula
                                    H?lau Hula Ka No'eau (performers: Davin Kawailana Pascual & Alrando Fortuna)
                                    “Hula is Resistance”