Iolani Palace invites you to join us at our new Na Moolelo Lecture Series. The lectures feature presentations by Hawaiian cultural experts, historians, and museum professionals that will prompt discussion of Hawaii history and culture as well as museum practices.

The free Na Moolelo Lecture series continues Iolani Palace mission to preserve and share Hawaii’s unique cultural and historical qualities with the community.

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Watch Past Lectures

The upcoming lectures for the Na Moolelo Lecture Series is as follows:

Wednesday, October 24

Topic: Nā Kilo Ao Māiki: Observing the Microbial Realm

Learn about the role that microorganisms—the smallest, most abundant forms of life—play in shaping the functionality of our ʻāina. By bridging cultural and historical knowledge with contemporary knowledge systems, we can begin to decode the insight left to us by our kupuna.

Speaker: Dr. Kiana Frank

Dr. Kiana Frank is an Assistant Professor in the Pacific Biosciences Research Center at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her work integrates biology, geochemistry and ʻike kupuna (traditional knowledge) to form connections between contemporary western science and Native Hawaiian science.

Wednesday, November 21

Topic: Unfit for a Queen: Eugenics and Hawaiian Education in Territorial Hawaiʻi

Between 1907 and World War II, a number of eugenics initiatives were introduced in Hawaiʻi. Learn more about how these measures helped assimilate Native Hawaiians and other non-whites to American norms while stabilizing control of the new oligarchy in the first decades of US occupation.

Speaker: Ilima Long

Ilima Long is a doctoral student in the Political Science program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She works at Native Hawaiian Student Services, where she builds programming to support the NHSS mission and prepare students to contribute to a life-affirming and de-occupied future in Hawaiʻi.

All discussions will take place at 5:00 p.m. in the Kanaina Building on the Palace Grounds. Admission is free.