T-shirt (Mauna Kea Sacred 'Aina)

This is a grey t-shirt screen printed with text and images referring to the proposed installation of a thirty metre telescope by an international consortium on the summit of Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain in Hawaii and a spiritually significant place for indigenous Hawaiians. The text on the front of the T-shirt reads‘Mauna Kea Sacred‘Āina'. The back of the T-shirt reads ‘Mauna Kea Sacred‘Āina' before you look in space, you gotta mālama this place. The Hawaiian Force, Hilo, Hawai'i.

Craig Neff - artist and activist

This T-shirt was created by artist Craig Neff, a prominent member of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement whose T-shirts were among the first expressions of Hawaiian political activism. In 2015, Neff was involved in and arrested for protesting against the proposed installation of the thirty metre telescope on Mauna Kea.

Neff has also designed shirts that convey aspects of indigenous knowledge relating to subjects such as Hawaiian dieties, fishing, and phases of the moon. On the website of "The Hawaiian Force" the business he runs with his wife Luana, he says "Through our unique, original Hawaiian Designs, we hope to share, inform, and educate people about a part of Hawaiian values, culture, thoughts, and often untold history.

T-shirts in the Pacific

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries T-shirts were a most accessible and widely worn form of clothing in the Pacific Islands. They may appear to be ordinary everyday garments, seemingly insignificant in the regions material culture. However, T- shirts and the images on them often lay claim to culture, history and places. They were inexpensive and mass-produced and often used by artists like a canvas, to communicate their causes, ideas and identities.

Political and cultural messages

Anthropologist Marjorie Kelly has researched the cultural significance of T-shirts in Hawaii and she notes that making T-shirts can be a consultative process that ultimately represents a collective vision of culture, history or politics. For Native Hawaiians T-shirts can express political and cultural messages, or highlight historical or upcoming cultural events. They can have a spiritual significance, as the very public statements they make can carry mana. Images on the T-shirts may be cartoon-like or nostalgic in nature and often reference a local sense of humour that has limited appeal to outsiders. Designs are often commissioned by various organisations and community groups and designers will consult the community on the accuracy of images and language.(1)

References

Marjorie Kelly, ‘Projecting an Image and Expressing Identity: T-Shirts in Hawai‘i’, Fashion Theory, Vol.7 Issue 2, 2003, pp. 191-292