Hawaiian Artifact Returned to Islands

HONOLULU, HAWAII—KHON2 News reports that a Hawaiian wooden carving thought to date to the eighteenth or nineteenth century will be handed over to the Bishop Museum. Known as a ki’i, or image, the 20-inch-tall carving represents the Hawaiian god Ku, who is depicted as a human figure wearing a headdress and standing in a warrior pose, with knees bent, calves flexed, and hands clenched at the back of the thighs. “It’s representative of the classic Kona style of ki’i that was carved most typically in the Kona region during the reign of Kamehameha I,” said Melanie Ide, president of the Bishop Museum. The ki’i is known to have been in a private collection in Europe since at least 1940. For more, go to “In Search of History's Great Rulers: Kamehameha I, King of Hawaii.”