Stories around a Feather Cloak

At the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England, you can see a beautiful Ahu’ula, a feather cloak from Hawaii. It is on display on the ground floor, in a case that has a curtain covering the glass, which when drawn back reveals the striking yellow, red and black design worked in tiny feathers. Draw back the curtain to see the feather cloaks on display and read the interpretation to learn how these Ahu ‘ula (cloaks) were used to reinforce political and diplomatic transactions, solidify relationships, and engender obligations. This feather cloak inspired the original commission for the Poakalani Quilting group, who went on to make fifteen quilts for the museum, which are on display in the special exhibition, Hawai’i Ma uka to Ma kai: Quilting the Hawaiian Landscape.