Hale Pili
Traditional Hawaiian thatched grass house
Wood, stone, and pili grass
Built of materials collected in early 19th, early 20th, and the early 21st centuries
In 1903, William Brigham, Bishop Museum's first director, was planning the exhibits for Hawaiian Hall, then under construction. He wrote to his friend, George Wilcox of Kaua'i about the possibility of procuring a hale pili, or thatched grass house, for the new museum:
It is not impossible that that there may be an old frame still in existence….we will try to have the old building renewed, for it will not be many years before there will not be a hale pili left on this group unless in our Museum. ….We want the best and as it will last indefinitely it would be a good specimen of native work for the many thousands of visitors who annually pass through our halls….
A suitable hale, perhaps already a hundred years old, was found on the west side of Kaua'i, near the beach of Miloli'i. The hale was carefully disassembled, shipped to Honolulu, and rebuilt within Hawaiian Hall using new cordage and pili grass.
By the end of the 20th century, Brigham's prediction had become reality: the Museum's hale pili was the last traditionally built house standing in the Hawaiian Islands.
With the Hawaiian renaissance of the 1970s and 80s there was a renewed interest in reviving a number of traditional arts and crafts. Cultural practitioners from throughout the islands visited the hale pili as they began to try and relearn some of the techniques used in its construction.
When Hawaiian Hall was renovated between 2006 and 2009, some of this new generation of hale builders helped to carefully disassemble the hale, evaluate the condition of each of the parts, gather new pili, and weave new cordage. Finished in 2009, the current hale contains hundreds of wooden parts from the original Museum exhibit, more than a mile of new cordage, and thousands of meticulously sorted and prepared bundles of pili.