Post #764019 by creativenative on Thu, May 19, 2016 8:22 PM

This is a great subject and it is in my heart and mind because recently I had a similar challenge. My first grandson recently turned one year old and as a tradition in Hawai'i we threw a big luau for him. His name is Laniakea which one interpretation is immense space. Our galaxy cluster is named after this Hawaiian word. With that in mind his mother wanted to do a themed luau of Space and Hawai'i. Much like this tread that is a challenge and an identity quandary. With great thought and research I did come up with some good relationships between these two seeming very different themes. Now I can do over an hour lecture on this subject - haha.

First in a slide show I shown a chart of all the actual outer space bodies with official Polynesian names like Laniakea and coincidently very recently it was announced that the dwarf planet Makemake has a discovered moon and like the Polynesian named moons of the dwarf planet Haumea, this new moon will probably have a like name. As most of us know, the inhabitants of Oceania were astute students of astronomy and in turned used this knowledge to navigate vast distances with their larger canoes. Check out the Disney film Moana which will be released at the end of 2016 or read about the around the world journey of the Hawaiian canoe Hôkûle‘a, which is currently circumnavigating the globe by using only the stars above and other ancient methods. Here in Hawai‘i there are heiau (sacred structures) dedicated to the study of the stars and one can also find here some of the best telescopes in the world to continue this study.

In architecture, googie Space Age structures and Polynesian Pop are both mid-century styles and at times similar. See web article on this subject in ZuluMagoo’s blog http://tikiarchitecture.blogspot.com/2011/10/tropical-space-age-architecture-part-1.html (part 1) and http://tikiarchitecture.blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html (part 2).

I also shown in my grandson’s luau a slide show of tiki art intermingled with space age. A common tiki art theme like this example from artist Edwin Wade.

Again both mid-century themes combined.

I also shown some clips of what I call Polynesia in space where in Sci-Fi South Seas Cinema there is a space connection either by 50’s “B” movies where alien like creatures end up in the Pacific like "Spacemaster X-7" (1958) or from Japan "Space Amoeba" (1970) or more recently "Mars Attacks" (1996) or "Battleship" (2012). There are also Polynesian connected scenes throughout the Star Trek universe and many characters in Star Wars played by Polynesians. In fact the whole clone army are extracted from the Mâori DNA of actor Temuera Morrison.

Finally back to the luau and a couple of Tiki/Space Age decorating tips that all in TC are free to use. The first one is not so creative – the hanging glass float planet lineup:

This second idea is more original using items from a good party decorating store or online – a black net and white dried star fish of various sizes that you can hang on a wall or from a black-painted ceiling.

[ Edited by: creativenative 2016-06-07 23:46 ]

[ Edited by: creativenative 2016-06-08 00:02 ]

[ Edited by: creativenative 2016-06-08 00:09 ]