Alakaʻi ke kuleana iā ʻoe (responsibility guides you): The guiding ethic of 808 urban and the intersection of traditional cultural practices, community, and graffiti muralism

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the non-profit organization 808 Urban, a Honolulu-based graffiti and urban art collective rooted in and guided by Native Hawaiian cultural values and traditions. 808 Urban’s medium of choice is aerosol painting via mural, where the large format visuals recount Hawaiian history, place-based moʻolelo (stories), and cultural landscapes. The murals celebrate Hawaiian culture through a rich and thoughtful research and design process they have acquired through trial and error for nearly 20 years. This project examines and discusses 808 Urban’s research, design, and community-engagement approaches that integrate Native Hawaiian traditional cultural practices guiding their work. Community member Kalani Kalima provides an account of his experience working with 808 Urban and his consulting role for the Waimānalo Mau a Mau (Waimānalo Forever) mural. Ethnographic interviews from the founder, John “Prime” Hina, and his two Alakaʻi Nui (Team Leads), Ralph Dela Cruz and Laetitia Kealakukui Mahoney, anchor the project. The research delves into a specific time of contemporary urban graffiti, which started in the late 1960s on the east coast of the United States before traveling west, eventually making its way to Hawaiʻi. I discuss Indigenous murals where both art forms—graffiti and muralism—touch on notions of urbanization, resistance, agency, community, and responsibility. I applied community-based methods and a Native Hawaiian framework to approach, conduct, and process data for this project. Relating to the main points of this thesis, the genesis of 808 Urban was rooted in graffiti culture and continues to honor spray-can art. However, their approach to starting a mural has changed. Kuleana guides their in-house processes, strengthens their bonds as cultural practitioners and the greater community who shares these traditions, and connects them spiritually, culturally, and environmentally to the pae ʻāina (archipelago).