Hawaiian presence limited at Washington museum

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaiians will have an important place but not a fixed presence in a new museum that will open this fall to honor the native people of America, and the museum's director said he's hoping to build more opportunities to showcase Hawaiian culture there.

The National Museum of the American Indian will open Sept. 21 on the National Mall, fronting the U.S. Capitol. Hawaiians will be among the thousands of native people expected to gather for a formal procession ending at the new museum, said W. Richard West Jr., its director, adding that Hawaiian performing arts will be part of the celebration and Hawaiian artifacts will be on loan for the opening exhibition.

But the museum, a part of the Smithsonian complex, has no plans to add Hawaiian pieces to its permanent collection, West told a gathering yesterday hosted by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

"I don't know that we will ever collect them," he said. "I would hope that Hawaiian material would stay closer to Hawai'i."

West said Hawaiian artifacts are housed permanently within a sister Smithsonian collection, the National Museum of Natural History, also in Washington, D.C., and he acknowledged the potential for collaborative exhibitions in the future.

Those collections are kept separate by acts of Congress, and it would take a new law to transfer Hawaiian artifacts from one to the other, he said.

West acknowledged that the reaction to this is likely to be mixed, because Hawaiians don't consider themselves to be American Indians.

Reach Vicki Viotti at 525-8053 or vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com.