Artists from American Samoa create pieces honoring their cultural heritage at Field Museum
A new exhibit honoring the culture of American Samoa is now under development at the museum, and two artists have been working onsite to carve out pieces of their cultural heritage.
The Regenstein Halls of the Pacific at the Field Museum mostly display Hawaiian artifacts. But Hawaii does not represent the entire region.
Su'a Uilisone Fitiao and his wife, Reggie Meredith Fitiao, are indigenous artists and cultural practitioners who have come to Chicago from American Samoa to add their own culture to the mix in an exhibit set to open in March 2026.
"With Hawaii graciously warming up the space, and bringing in and welcoming us to come in and share what we do in American Samoa is a real honor," said Reggie Meredith Fitiao.
The artists do not want future generations missing out on their traditions.
"None of them's going to know how to do our ancient ways," said Su'a Uilisone Fitiao.
Su'a Uilisone Fitiao was working Thursday to carve an outrigger for a canoe that dates back to the late 19tn century. American Samoans use the canoes mostly to fish along the shoreline.
"We can even use it as a messenger boat," said Su'a Uilisone Fitiao. "You can paddle it to another island."
If he were carving the whole boat from scratch, it would take a lot of patience.
"It'll probably take me almost a month if I do it by myself, because you start it from a tree standing," said Su'a Uilisone Fitiao.
His wife also devotes many hours to her craft. At the Field Museum on Thursday, she was creating an artwork on a bark cloth spread across a folding table.
"The Samoan word for tapa — which is a universal word for bark cloth art — our word is siapo," said Reggie Meredith Fitiao.
Every stroke she makes on the bark cloth is dedication from the earth, to the earth.
"So we get everything from nature, from the tops of our mountains down to the depths of our oceans," said Reggie Meredith Fitiao.
The four main dyes she uses for the barkcloth artwork come from plants. Even the brush is a seed from the pandanus tree.
There is no waste.
"I can rinse it off, throw it in the yard and it will grow," said Reggie Meredith Fitiao.
Her tapestry represents shells, birds flying, and other natural themes. The canoe also emphasizes the importance of the world around us.
"To go to island to island, all over Polynesia, there's our taxi," said Su'a Uilisone Fitiao.
The artists will continue to work on the project at the Field Museum through Aug. 2.
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That ethos, he explains, eliminated 'guesswork' or well-intentioned but inaccurate choices. 'There was always a right way. We aimed for that, while also obviously accounting for modern times.' Entire coastal villages were painstakingly reconstructed using traditional techniques. Canoe builders crafted 47 traditional Hawaiian wa'as—double-hulled voyaging canoes—while more than 42,000 feet of Evolon, a lightweight fabric prized for its strength and versatility in costume design, went into garments that honored the textures and designs of the era, including the feathered capes and cloaks worn by high chiefs. The production was pushed even further for the show's more heart-pounding moments. For one adrenaline-fueled sequence between Ka'iana and King Kamehameha I, played in the show by Makua, the team recreated holua sled racing, a sacred Hawaiian sport. In Awhitu, a rugged coastal stretch of New Zealand, the crew filmed riders launching themselves down mile-long tracks of hardened lava on sleds scarcely six inches wide, reaching speeds of nearly 60 miles per hour before plunging into the Pacific. Much of the sequence was filmed practically, with cameras placed low to the ground to mimic the terrifying velocity and perspective of the riders. Other scenes demanded something even more elemental. On the Big Island, 75 stunt performers gathered on the black lava fields of Kalapana to film one of the series' climactic battles. The land was silent, jagged rock stretching for miles, until Mauna Loa stirred. Without warning, the volcano erupted for the first time in 38 years. For safety, the crew consulted the production's geologist; filming went on as the volcano rumbled in the distance. On the final day of shooting in the black desert, they wrapped production and celebrated with a small party. By the next morning, the eruption ceased. 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