In February of 2025, members of the CERC team and student Research Assistants made their way across the Pacific and attended the Hawai’i Triennial as a method of team-building and research for their later work at the Bonavista Biennale. We experienced the richness offered by the multimodal and multi-locational exhibition ALOHA NŌ, which featured artists ranging from local to international. ALOHA NŌ represents a way of living, rooted in deep love, truth, and connection. “ALOHA NŌ invites all — native islanders, settlers, immigrants, and tourists — to experience and un/learn how to enter and center a place called Hawaiʻi.” The exhibition encouraged all of us to know aloha and embody different understandings of love as acts of care, resistance, solidarity, and transformation. 

Hawai’i Contemporary is an organization that is inspired by the unique histories of Hawai’i as a gathering place for peoples, cultures, and ideas, aiming to connect communities from across the Pacific ocean by way of contemporary art. They organize the Hawai’i Triennial every three years, which is the state’s largest, single-themed exhibition of contemporary art. By highlighting artists from Hawai’i, the Pacific, and beyond, this multi-site exhibition has displayed 169 artists and arts collectives. The Hawai’i Triennial successfully and positively contributes to the vibrant arts ecosystem in Hawai’i by inspiring meaningful exchanges within the visual arts between artists, researchers, students, and curators.