34x84inches. Diptych. Transparent watercolor on paper. $7000.
“Arrival of the First Nations” imagines Kane’ohe after Proto-Polynesian settlers began to terraform their home. The Pacific settlers travelled on double hulled canoes outfitted with all they needed to establish new colonies with all the plants, animals, and tools they would need to settle their new territory. In Hawai’i plants are designated as indigenous–that is, it came by non human means as seeds or cuttings borne by the tides, winds or birds and established itself on the islands. Canoe plants are those that were introduced by humans but before European contact. Introduced or foreign species are those that were brought by accident or intentionally planted by humans after first contact with Captain James Cook.