Lehuauakea, a Kanaka Maoli artist and practitioner of kapa, or Native Hawaiian bark clothmaking, felt called to reclaim the practice — which was nearly wiped out by the 1900s as the United States illegally annexed the territory — when they moved away from home to Oregon during high school. 

Years later, Lehuauakea splits their time between Santa Fe, on “the continent,” and the Island of Hawaiʻi, where they grew up. Lehuauakea gathers, soaks, and beats tree bark, usually from the wauke or paper mulberry tree, to create kapa, which they dye with natural pigments to form large-scale installations, textiles, and experimental mixed-media works. 

Last month, Lehuauakea became the second recipient of the Walker Youngbird Foundation’s twice-annual $15,000 grant for emerging Native American artists, which will also prepare them for a solo exhibition at the New York City gallery Nunu Fine Art in 2026. 

The foundation was launched last November by Reid Walker, a communications professional and member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations of North Dakota. Muscogee-Creek painter George Alexander was the grant’s inaugural recipient. 

Lehuauakea is among the few kapa practitioners under the age of 30 working in the art form today, according to the foundation.

Walker said in a statement in March that Lehuauakea’s integration of ancestral tradition, environmental stewardship, and themes of queer Indigenous identity serves as a “compelling example of how Native artists are not only preserving cultural traditions but actively evolving them.”

Read the full article here.