Mauka to Makai: Hawaiian Quilts and the Ecology of the Islands, Marenka Thompson‑Odlum

Mauka to Makai traces the ahupuaʻa—the ancient Hawaiian land‑division system that spans upland forest to sea—as a holistic ecological model woven into the tradition of Hawaiian quilting. Through fifteen newly commissioned quilts created with the Poakalani quilting group and curated by Pitt Rivers Museum, Marenka Thompson‑Odlum charts how these textile narratives reflect ancestral ecological knowledge confronting climate crisis, colonial disruption, and cultural resurgence. Edited as a 120‑page paperback, the book pairs each quilt with oral histories, environmental testimony, and a glossary of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi that root stitch in place and purpose.

Rather than a mere exhibition catalogue, Mauka to Makai becomes a manifest dialogue—a gentle reclamation of fibre as ecological storytelling. Essays and interviews with historians, farmers, environmental activists and artists speak to quilting as collective resistance and regenerative stewardship. Both deeply place‑based and visually powerful, it demonstrates how creative activism sustains land, identity and ancestral relationship.

About the Author
Marenka Thompson‑Odlum serves as Research Curator (Critical Perspectives) at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. Born in St Lucia, she leads community‑led collection projects and works at the intersection of post‑colonial method, decolonial museum practice and Indigenous solidarity. In this project, she not only curates visual legacy, but also joins the Poakalani quilting circle—learning kapa‑beating, taro planting, and ecological observation—to embody embodied stewardship alongside community makers.

Publication date: 2024
Publisher: Common Threads Press
Pages: 120
ISBN: 9781068625008