How do you preserve a culture when its materials are gone?
In short: From the complex museum renovations at The Met to the reconstruction of ancient Polynesian vessels, preserving history is difficult. When the native Hawaiian koa trees needed for traditional voyaging canoes were gone, builders had to find unexpected substitutes, proving that protecting cultural heritage requires the active conservation of natural habitats.
In the halls of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the preservation of Oceanic Art involves a complex, three-year-on-site renovation. This massive undertaking, overseen by conservators like Christine Giuntini and Amy Jones, required everything from wing de-installation and demolition to the creation of specialized casework to protect delicate objects.
The challenge of preservation extends far beyond museum walls to the very survival of traditional technologies. For the Polynesian voyaging revival, the 1976 launch of the Hōkūle'a relied on 18th and 19th-century European sketches because the tropical climate had long since composted ancient wooden vessels. When builders attempted to create the Hawai'iloa in 1990 using purely traditional materials, they faced a crisis: the native Hawaiian koa trees large enough for a voyaging canoe had been depleted by loggers and ranchers.
The solution was an act of international solidarity. The Alaskan Tlingit tribe donated two 200-foot-tall Sitka spruce trees to the project. While these Alaskan trees were technically 'traditional' due to the historical presence of Pacific Northwest drift logs in Hawaii, the construction process was fraught with difficulty. The crew struggled with tearing pandanus sails and breaking sennit cordage, eventually discovering that the vessel sailed best backwards. Ultimately, the Hawai'iloa project, launched in 1994, became a catalyst for environmental conservation, proving that cultural heritage cannot be sustained without protecting the habitats that provide its essential materials.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: What to Do with a 50-Foot Canoe?—The Care, Conservation, and Installation of Oceanic Art
- Also: To Build a Canoe | Exploratorium
- Also: www.nationalgeographic.com — Can a Canoe Be a Work of Art? Why Not? | National Geographic
- Also: www.noaa.gov — 50 years of ocean & coastal conservation | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
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