Revisiting Kealakekua Bay, Reworking the Captain Cook Monument
Revisiting Kealakekua Bay, Reworking the Captain Cook Monument
On View: August 22 - December 12, 2026
Donkey Mill Art Center
On View: August 22–December 12, 2026
Donkey Mill Art Center
Installation Views. Revisiting Kealakekua Bay, Reworking the Captain Cook Monument, Donkey Mill Art Center, Hōlualoa, Kona, Hawaiʻi, August 22 – December 12, 2026. Curated by Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick in conversation with Mina Elison. Organized by Puʻuhonua Society in partnership with Donkey Mill Art Center. Courtesy of the artists and Puʻuhonua Society. Photo by DKB + AYS.
HŌLUALOA, HAWAIʻI – The Donkey Mill Art Center (The Donkey Mill) and Puʻuhonua Society present Revisiting Kealakekua Bay, Reworking the Captain Cook Monument (2026), an exhibition bringing together six artists, an artist duo, and an artist collective to stage speculative interventions in response to the white obelisk commemorating British explorer James Cook at Kaʻawaloa on the shore of Kealakekua Bay along the Kona coast of the island of Hawaiʻi.
Each responding in their own ways to the historical circumstances and contemporary implications of the Cook Monument, the project participants’ unrealized proposals, visual research, and newly commissioned artworks, while suggesting multiple approaches to address the commemorative environments of the Hawaiian archipelago, are first and foremost a call to action.
A collaborative and intentionally slow-moving group endeavor, since its beginning in 2018, the underlying aims of Revisiting Kealakekua Bay, Reworking the Captain Cook Monument have been to revisit an ancestral place and rework a historic monument; honor stories of affirmation and resistance in Hawai‘i; work through legacies of scientific colonialism in the Pacific; and activate pathways toward remediated futures already in the making. For is it not the responsibility of those in this present moment to reconcile with the pasts that they have inherited, regardless of which side (or sides) of a given story “we” may find ourselves on?
The exhibition at the Donkey Mill Art Center, August 22 - December 12, 2026, was conceived and curated by artist Drew Kahu‘āina Broderick in conversation with the Donkey Mill’s curator Mina Elison. This project is organized by Pu‘uhonua Society, a community arts and culture organization committed to Hawai‘i and its abundant futures, and made possible by Teiger Foundation, a New York-based organization supporting contemporary visual art with a primary focus on curators. Additional support is provided by the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the County of Hawaiʻi, and the Donkey Mill’s community of individual donors.
Participating Artists
Gaye Chan, Kaili Chun, Sean Connelly, Sally Lundburg and Keith Tallett, Dan Taulapapa McMullin, maliewai, Lawrence Seward, and Cory Kamehanaokalā Holt Taum.
Exhibition Information
Donkey Mill Art Center
78-6670 Mamalahoa Hwy, Holualoa, HI 96725
Hours: Wed – Sat, 10:00am – 6:00pm
August 22 – December 12, 2026
Free and open to the public.
Artworks in this exhibition contain mature content.
Additional Information:
Installation Views. Revisiting Kealakekua Bay, Reworking the Captain Cook Monument, Donkey Mill Art Center, Hōlualoa, Kona, Hawaiʻi, August 22 – December 12, 2026. Curated by Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick in conversation with Mina Elison. Organized by Puʻuhonua Society in partnership with Donkey Mill Art Centter. Courtesy of the artists art Puʻuhonua Society. Photo by DKB + AYS.
HŌLUALOA, HAWAIʻI – The Donkey Mill Art Center (The Donkey Mill) and Puʻuhonua Society present Revisiting Kealakekua Bay, Reworking the Captain Cook Monument (2026), an exhibition bringing together six artists, an artist duo, and an artist collective to stage speculative interventions in response to the white obelisk commemorating British explorer James Cook at Kaʻawaloa on the shore of Kealakekua Bay along the Kona coast of the island of Hawaiʻi.
Each responding in their own ways to the historical circumstances and contemporary implications of the Cook Monument, the project participants’ unrealized proposals, visual research, and newly commissioned artworks, while suggesting multiple approaches to address the commemorative environments of the Hawaiian archipelago, are first and foremost a call to action.
A collaborative and intentionally slow-moving group endeavor, since its beginning in 2018, the underlying aims of Revisiting Kealakekua Bay, Reworking the Captain Cook Monument have been to revisit an ancestral place and rework a historic monument; honor stories of affirmation and resistance in Hawai‘i; work through legacies of scientific colonialism in the Pacific; and activate pathways toward remediated futures already in the making. For is it not the responsibility of those in this present moment to reconcile with the pasts that they have inherited, regardless of which side (or sides) of a given story “we” may find ourselves on?
The exhibition at the Donkey Mill Art Center, August 22 - December 12, 2026, was conceived and curated by artist Drew Kahu‘āina Broderick in conversation with the Donkey Mill’s curator Mina Elison. This project is organized by Pu‘uhonua Society, a community arts and culture organization committed to Hawai‘i and its abundant futures, and made possible by Teiger Foundation, a New York-based organization supporting contemporary visual art with a primary focus on curators. Additional support is provided by the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the County of Hawaiʻi, and the Donkey Mill’s community of individual donors.
Participating Artists
Gaye Chan, Kaili Chun, Sean Connelly, Sally Lundburg and Keith Tallett, Dan Taulapapa McMullin, maliewai, Lawrence Seward, and Cory Kamehanaokalā Holt Taum.
Exhibition Information
Donkey Mill Art Center
78-6670 Mamalahoa Hwy, Holualoa, HI 96725
Hours: Wed – Sat, 10:00am – 6:00pm
August 22 – December 12, 2026
Free and open to the public.
Artworks in this exhibition contain mature content.
Additional Information:
Installation Views. Revisiting Kealakekua Bay, Reworking the Captain Cook Monument, Donkey Mill Art Center, Hōlualoa, Kona, Hawaiʻi, August 22 – December 12, 2026. Curated by Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick in conversation with Mina Elison. Organized by Puʻuhonua Society in partnership with Donkey Mill Art Centter. Courtesy of the artists art Puʻuhonua Society. Photo by DKB + AYS.
HŌLUALOA, HAWAIʻI – The Donkey Mill Art Center (The Donkey Mill) and Puʻuhonua Society present Revisiting Kealakekua Bay, Reworking the Captain Cook Monument (2026), an exhibition bringing together six artists, an artist duo, and an artist collective to stage speculative interventions in response to the white obelisk commemorating British explorer James Cook at Kaʻawaloa on the shore of Kealakekua Bay along the Kona coast of the island of Hawaiʻi.
Each responding in their own ways to the historical circumstances and contemporary implications of the Cook Monument, the project participants’ unrealized proposals, visual research, and newly commissioned artworks, while suggesting multiple approaches to address the commemorative environments of the Hawaiian archipelago, are first and foremost a call to action.
A collaborative and intentionally slow-moving group endeavor, since its beginning in 2018, the underlying aims of Revisiting Kealakekua Bay, Reworking the Captain Cook Monument have been to revisit an ancestral place and rework a historic monument; honor stories of affirmation and resistance in Hawai‘i; work through legacies of scientific colonialism in the Pacific; and activate pathways toward remediated futures already in the making. For is it not the responsibility of those in this present moment to reconcile with the pasts that they have inherited, regardless of which side (or sides) of a given story “we” may find ourselves on?
The exhibition at the Donkey Mill Art Center, August 22 - December 12, 2026, was conceived and curated by artist Drew Kahu‘āina Broderick in conversation with the Donkey Mill’s curator Mina Elison. This project is organized by Pu‘uhonua Society, a community arts and culture organization committed to Hawai‘i and its abundant futures, and made possible by Teiger Foundation, a New York-based organization supporting contemporary visual art with a primary focus on curators. Additional support is provided by the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the County of Hawaiʻi, and the Donkey Mill’s community of individual donors.
Participating Artists
Gaye Chan, Kaili Chun, Sean Connelly, Sally Lundburg and Keith Tallett, Dan Taulapapa McMullin, maliewai, Lawrence Seward, and Cory Kamehanaokalā Holt Taum.
Exhibition Information
Donkey Mill Art Center
78-6670 Mamalahoa Hwy, Holualoa, HI 96725
Hours: Wed – Sat, 10:00am – 6:00pm
August 22 – December 12, 2026
Free and open to the public.
Artworks in this exhibition contain mature content.