Art of Featherwork in Old Hawaii

"....Feathers for the Hawaiians were imbued with magical properties. They were thought to help conduct extrasensory perceptions. For Hawaiians, the flight of birds--the great soaring heights reach by sea birds, the speed of forest birds and the extraordinary eyesight and endurance of all birds--gave these creatures special properties. Why should they be magical?... Their gift of flight was considered unusual and wonderful. But despite such awe, many old Hawaiian feather objects, like much of the culture of Old Hawaii, have disappeared. Most of the birds are extinct, and early in the 19th century sculptures, tools and small images were lost by the thousands as Hawaiians were encouraged to destroy their culture in favor of one being superimposed upon them....Fortunately, for those of this century, the featherworks have survived and can be seen in various museums, some as far away from Hawaii as Leningrad.... Such magical feathers compel us to look beyond their face-value, their reality, and what we see are fierce gods who are moving in their symbolization of power, capes and cloaks with remarkably abstract designs that force us to ponder their mysteries, great kahili so awesomely austere that they give us pause to ponder their strangeness, their power, and feather lei--fragile relics from a fairy world--that perhaps best of all communicate the mystique of feathers and the profound respect accorded them by Hawaiians."

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