Temple image of the god Kū
Breadfruit wood
From Hawaiʻi Island
Made before 1800
For hundreds of years, Hawaiian society was governed by the ʻaikapu, a system of religious, social, and political laws. Under the ʻaikapu (literally, "the rules of eating") all aspects of life were intimately bound up with the recognition of the 40,000 akua, or gods, of the Hawaiian people. Supreme among the gods were four: Kū, Kāne, Lono and Kanaloa. Kū is often thought of simply as the Hawaiian god of war, but like the other gods of the pantheon, he took on many forms and was worshipped for his many faceted roles.
Prayers to Kū were given when a kahuna chose a koa tree for a wa'a, or canoe. He was given offerings by hopeful fishermen. His name was invoked to aid the bird catcher in the deep forest in search of hulu, or feathers, for the spectacular ʻahaʻula, feathered capes. He was the god of farming, government, and adze-making. His many kinolau, or body forms, included the ʻōhiʻa tree, the ʻulu (or breadfruit), the puhi (or eel), and the niu (or coconut). But these other roles have largely been forgotten in the wider public understanding of Kū.
When traditional Hawaiian religion was supplanted by Christianity in the early 1800s, many kiʻi, or images, were destroyed. The ones that remained, like this temple image, were stripped of their original sacred meanings.
Bishop Museum historian DeSoto Brown:
Once he was in Hawaiian Hall and easy for people to see, he then inspired, if you can use that term, a lot of other depictions of him. And because his image was used so frequently for so many different things, that in turn kind of turned him into a symbol of Hawaiian culture and of Hawaiʻi.Today cultural practitioners look to the collections of the Bishop Museum for artistic inspiration but Kū has come to be symbol of Hawaiian political identity as well.
Native Hawaiian artist Bob Freitas:
There's something powerful there that maybe we can't explain, but the point is I think that even though these images come from a whole different time when they were worshipped and a lot of people put a lot of spiritual energy into them.