"Moʻokūʻauhau" 5" x 7" Canvas Print

Moʻokūʻauhau - Genealogy 

In the Hawaiian belief, our gods are also our family. Our ancestors are the links in an unbroken chain of knowledge, wisdom, lessons, and mana.

This piece is a piece of concept art for a game designed in collaboration with students from Nānākuli High and Intermediate School on the Waiʻanae coast of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. Through a place-based afterschool program by PALS and Places Hawaiʻi, Jeffrey Vierra, Jack Hobbs, and I teach a game design class where we work with high school students to build a game of their own design. This game in particular voiced the studentsʻ resistance to the proposal of a new landfill being built in their neighborhood. In it, four factions must communicate and come to agreement in order to ensure the survival of their island home. This game is still in development. 

This faction is called the "Kupu" and represents the natives of the island, the tree-people, who are guardians of the land and its resources, and depend on the health of the land in order to survive. Every Kupu begins life sprouting from a corm, grow into a tree, are eventually able to walk freely as stewards and protectors of the land, and when they die, their corm is replanted to begin a new generation. 

This piece depicts their growth process from sprout to tree. 

Total of 40 prints available for purchase.