Join MOLAA and PIEAM for a very special celebration of AAPI and AAPI Latinx communities!
Tour led by Fran Lujan, Executive Director of the Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum (PIEAM)
"WE ARE MAUNA KEA" Weshoyot Alvitre, pen and ink and digital coloring 2019
KŪKULU: Behold the Pillars of Mauna Kea
May 3 – September 28, 2025
Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum | 695 Alamitos Avenue | Long Beach, CA 90802
The Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum (PIEAM) brings KŪKULU: Behold the Pillars of Mauna Kea to Long Beach, California, from May 3-September 28, 2025. This 21st installation beholds traditional arts, film, photos and music from the movement to protect the sacred mountain of Mauna Kea. Its enduring messages will be woven into the many stories from many islands, cared for at PIEAM.
KŪKULU is a project of the Mauna Kea Education and Awareness, whose purpose is to educate and raise the awareness of communities on the spiritual, historical, cultural, and environmental significance of Mauna Kea. It highlights the decades-long resistance to the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope project, which drew global attention in 2019 as Mauna Kea Kia'i (protectors) maintained a six-month blockade of the access road leading to the project and 38 Kūpuna (elders) were arrested. This exhibit at PIEAM also shares how indigenous people of Turtle Island stand together to protect all sacred places.
