68 ABOVE: Ritual platform on the west side of Bowl Hill; Mokumanamana (Necker Island). Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, inv. SP11805. ABOVE RIGHT: Anthropomorphic figure, ki‘i pahaku, from marae 12. Mokumanamana (Necker) Island, Hawaii. 9th–11th century (?). Vesicular basalt. H: 19.7 cm. Captain Freeman and Benjamin H. Norton, collected Necker Island, 1894, S.S. Iwalani; Daniel Balou; (William Coleman Auction Galleries, New York, until 1940); Willard B. Golovin, New York, until 1976. Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 1976.194, Rogers Fund, 1976. LEFT: Anthropomorphic figure, ki’i pahaku, from marae 12. Mokumanamana (Necker) Island, Hawaii. 9th–11th century (?). Vesicular basalt, 35.6 cm. Captain Freeman and Benjamin H. Norton, collected Necker Island, 1894, S.S. Iwalani. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, inv. 07447. Papahanaumokuakea HONOLULU—When the sun sets over Kaua`i, most people tend to think that the day is done in the Hawaiian Archipelago. In fact, the island chain extends another thousand miles to the northwest as a chain of small, uninhabited islands, atolls, and barely submerged reefs, with Midway Atoll near the western terminus. Now called Papahanaumokuakea and designated as both a marine national monument and a mixed UNESCO World Heritage Site, this northwestern part of the archipelago has long played a vital role in the cultural and natural history of the main Hawaiian Islands. Among these remote islands is Mokumanamana (also called Necker Island), some 300 miles from Kaua`i. A windy, treeless basalt formation, it is only 1,200 yards long, but surveys have identifi ed some thirty-four ancient heiau, or shrines, the densest concentration of such ritual sites anywhere in the islands. A new exhibition at the Bishop Museum titled Journeys: Heritage of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, on view until January 29, 2017, examines the history and signifi cance of this remote island chain. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a group of eight ki‘i pahaku (stone fi gures) from Mokumanamana—six from Bishop Museum’s ethnology collection and one each on loan from the Peabody Essex Museum and from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. These vesicular basalt fi gures are unlike those typically associated with other Hawaiian sites and have been likened by some to being stylistically closer to stone carvings from the Marquesas Islands than to those of Hawaii. Since the fi gures and the structures they are associated with long predate the historic period, they remain a mystery. In addition to other archaeological artifacts from the region, the exhibit also features memorabilia from the “Golden Age of Air Travel,” when Midway was a key stop on transpacifi c routes, and it tells the story of the Battle of Midway, the turning point in the Pacifi c Theater in WWII. Finally, it showcases the functioning ecosystem and spiritual signifi cance of Papahanaumokuakea as one of the world’s largest marine conservation areas, presenting it as a model for regeneration and revitalization of unique natural and cultural landscapes. MUSEUM news
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