Oakland Museum at the Oakland International Airport

Lei Aloha
November 17, 2000 -February 2, 2001

Current Airport Exhibitions

Airport Exhibition Archive

Design: Kathleen Keigharn - Photograph courtesy of Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii.

The lei is the most enduring symbol of Hawai`i, instantly recognizable around the world, and deeply cherished within the fabric of Hawaiian traditions. Lei Aloha, on display at Oakland International Airport from November 17, 2000 to February 2, 2001, offers a capsule history of the prominence of the lei from the point of European contact in 1778, to the importance of the lei as an expressive format for contemporary artists. It also offers a glimpse of the meanings that abound in the lei culture from past to present.

From the earliest recorded contact with the Western world in 1778, Hawaiians have been noted for the wearing and giving of lei. In ship logs and journals, 18th and 19th century voyagers described the lei as a prominent feature of dress and adornment among native Hawaiians. What could not be described was the deep-rooted meaning of the lei as a metaphor for aloha. Aloha is love, compassion, gratitude, mutual respect, regard for the land, and hospitality.

By 1890, lei vendors created a new industry in response to the waves of visitors who expected to be greeted with a lei upon arrival in Honolulu. The fledgling businesses were dominated by Hawaiian women and men, who lined up near the docks, offering long, fragrant garlands of plumeria, pakalana, gardenias, and orchids.

In the 1920s, Hawaii's flowers were banned from entering California. Undaunted by this new code to protect the mainland from insect pests, lei sellers designed artificial flower lei, fashioned from bright crepe paper, fabric, and every conceivable material that could be manipulated to resemble specific flowers. Today, the ban has relaxed, but the fervor for creating lei of unexpected ingredients has not waned for contemporary artists.

The lei became an instantly recognizable symbol of Hawaiian hospitality. As the tourist industry in Hawaii grew, the lei was often used in advertising to sell everything from airline flights to hotel rooms. Textile designers screened garlands on popular aloha shirts and mu`umu`u. Songs about lei, romance and wanderlust filled music stores. Postcards of favorite Hawaiian flowers and lei were sent to all parts of the world. In Hawaii, the lei celebrates birthdays, graduations, grand openings and anniversaries. Lei are even presented to inanimate objects!

Anything that grows from the land can most likely be made into a lei. Flourishing lei stands in downtown Honolulu display an endless variety of lei that have been strung, tied, twisted, woven, plaited, or wrapped into works of art. New styles of lei are influenced by many Pacific cultures, made with materials available in Hawai`i.

Floral lei teach the wearer to delight in the moment. A lei may wither within hours, but its texture changes and the fragrance lingers. Dried lei are loved for the memories they evoke, and are kept indefinitely. Today, many professional lei makers thoughtfully cultivate their own flowers, ferns and materials to avoid the ecological imbalance that comes from stripping the forests.

The permanent lei is designed with materials of lasting quality. Some of the earliest and most valued lei were made of ivory, feathers, human hair, shells and seeds. Today, lei artists fashion them out of clay, fabric, glass beads, paper, plastic, ribbons and bone. No material is unexplored in its potential to become a lei. And upon receiving such a lei, there is the added joy of the artist's ingenuity.

The lei is a tangible expression of love for the land and its infinite gifts to our senses. Hawai`i has weathered enormous changes in government, immigration, agriculture, language and culture in just over two hundred years. Through it all, the lei has comforted and decorated. The simple wearing of lei demonstrates both the resilience of the Hawaiian spirit to practice the cultural values of aloha and to their commitment to the conservation of their most precious natural resources.