Restoring Bishop Museum’s Hawaiian Hall

Hoʻi hou ka wena i Kaiwiʻula. Dawn’s golden glow returns to Kaiwiʻula. The world’s premier showcase of Hawaiian history and culture, Hawaiian Hall, has long been at the heart of Bishop Museum. For more than a century, it has housed the museum’s most beloved and priceless artifacts, those closest to the museum’s aliʻi roots. Five generations of children have glimpsed their heritage for the first time inside this great hall. Today, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of Hawaiʻi’s most significant and iconic buildings. Bishop Museum’s founding collections contain the personal legacies and bequests of the royal Kamehameha and Kalākaua families, including those of the museum’s namesake Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani, and Queen Emma. For the past one hundred and twenty years, the museum has served as the keeper of these Hawaiian cultural treasures and displayed many of them inside Hawaiian Hall. The newly restored Hawaiian Hall is a