Conservation experts deploying to Lahaina, Hawaii, to support recovery from 2023 wildfires

Hawaiian heritage websites affected by the 2023 wildfires are getting extra on-the-ground assist. The Nationwide Endowment for the Humanities has awarded a grant of $19,605.79 to the Basis for Development in Conservation (FAIC) to deploy two of its Nationwide Heritage Responders (NHR) to the island of Maui. Malia Van Heukelem and Liane Naʻauao, volunteer consultants in cultural-heritage conservation and preservation, will assist establishments broken by the fires—beginning with the Lahaina Jodo Mission, a historic Buddhist temple.

Wildfires final August destroyed a lot of the historic city of Lahaina—the primary capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom—on the northwest coast of Maui, killing greater than 100 folks. Many museums and heritage websites have been critically broken or destroyed, together with all however one of many 14 historic websites owned or managed by the Lahaina Restoration Basis.

Van Heukelem and Naʻauao, conservators primarily based on the neighbouring island of Oahu, have been working remotely since final yr to mitigate the state of affairs in Lahaina by session classes and webinars. Beginning in July and persevering with by spring 2025, they’ll journey to Lahaina six occasions to assist affected establishments and historic websites, advising on finest practices for storage of salvaged objects and their secure dealing with.

“As a Nationwide Heritage Responder for greater than a decade and as a collections supervisor whose profession started with emergency response, deploying to Lahaina is a significant alternative to collaborate with the group to safeguard websites, artefacts and traditions,” Van Heukelem stated in an announcement.

“This collaboration shouldn’t be solely about preserving objects, but additionally guaranteeing that the following era will get the prospect to understand Lahaina’s extraordinary historical past and tradition,” Lissa Rosenthal-Yoffe, govt director of FAIC, stated in an announcement.

The NHR programme began partially as a response to the harm brought on by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to New Orleans in 2005. Since then, groups of volunteers have labored on the bottom in areas affected by floods, hurricanes and tropical storms throughout the US and in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. There are at present 90 conservators, curators, librarians, archivists and different collections professionals actively serving as NHR volunteers—with a further 35 on reserve.