The Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail encompasses 175 miles of historic volcanic stone foot trails constructed centuries ago by the indigenous people of Hawai’i. These trails continue to connect numerous sites of cultural and historic significance passing through over 200 traditional land diviisions  as well as four national parks.

Kaloko–Honokōhau National Historical Park initiated this project to highlight the trails that pass through the park and to honor the many traditional uses of these trails that tied culture and commerce across the island landscape.  As the design lead on this project, I met with representatives from the park and stakeholders from the local indigenous community to develop a systemnof sculptural trail markers featuring indigenous Hawiian figures engaged in traditional daily life activities.

I created and refined four illustrations that were later translated into 1/2” thickness free standing aluminum sculpures to be placed at various traffic points along the trails. I detailed the fabrication and installation technique for these scultures through several iterations in consultation with NPS conservation staff to ensure that that they complied with the strict conservation standards of this culturally significant landscape. Finally, I worked with NPS bilingual content developers to design interpretive graphics that encorporated Ōlelo Hawaiʻi and English text while giving primacy to the indeigenous language content