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Historic Hawai‘i Foundation Names

HERB KAWAINUI KANE

AS 2011 KAMA‘ĀINA OF THE YEAR™

Mahalo to all who attended our 2011 “Kama‘āina of the Year™” annual benefit honoring the late Herb Kawainui Kāne. On October 22, Herb Kawainui Kāne was honored for his life’s work as an artist, historian, and one of the founders of the Polynesian Voyaging Society. While still working as a graphic artist in Chicago, Kāne began researching Polynesian canoes and voyaging that ultimately brought him back to Hawai‘i and the creation of his life’s work of paintings depicting Polynesian canoes and other aspects of Hawaiian culture. Kāne also helped design and build Hōkūle‘a, a traditional double-hulled voyaging canoe that made its inaugural voyage from Hawai‘i to Tahiti without modern navigation aids in 1976.

His work of meticulously researched and detailed depictions of historic events in Hawai‘i’s history are on display in museums, private collections and public places in Hawai‘i, notably a series of 14 paintings of voyaging canoes in Hawai‘i State buildings and his well-known painting of Pele at the Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. The U. S. Postal Service issued seven postage stamps of his paintings, including the stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hawai‘i statehood.

Kāne was born in Minnesota on June 21, 1928 and raised on Hawai‘i Island and died in Kona on March 8, 2011.

Herb Kane is the 24th recipient of the Kama‘āina of the Year™ award, which honors individuals who have made unique and lasting contributions to the preservation of Hawaii’s historic places and cultural resources. The event is Historic Hawai‘i Foundation’s annual fundraiser and proceeds support the preservation of historic sites throughout the Hawaiian Islands.

PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT: