The Bishop Museum original exhibition Ka ‘Ula Wena: Oceanic Red (May 25, 2025–January 12, 2025) and this, its accompanying full-color catalog, are the first of their kind to constellate the material culture of the Pacific by articulating the myriad uses and manifold understandings of a single color: red.   

Both exhibition and catalog draw on Bishop Museum’s vast collections and important loaned pieces from around the world, and share the research and ideas of curators, scholars, artists, knowledge holders, and collaborative advisors and practitioners. Together, the nineteen contributors chart paths between a diverse array of perspectives encompassing red and redness as part of the human condition. Thus, more than a methodology or a theme, “red” offers a capacious environment within which ideas, projects, conversations, artwork, and scholarship are woven across Moananuiākea and the world. 

Ka ʻUla Wena: Oceanic Red celebrates the distinctly unique reds of Oceania and the redness of our connections.

With contributions from 19 authors: essays, poems, and mele.