Pō‘ele Wai (As the Water Darkens)

At dusk, a figure bends low in a shallow concrete-lined stream, hand reaching toward the water. The channel glows a dull rose under the fading sky, walls of graffiti and houses above, as if the water itself were holding its breath.
Title
Pō‘ele Wai (As the Water Darkens)
Artist
Tiare Ribeaux
Date
2023
Description
A short fiction film by Tiare Ribeaux, a moving-image artist of Indigenous Hawaiian ancestry, about a weaver who slowly realizes her drinking water has been poisoned after a fuel spill at Kapūkakī (Red Hill) on O‘ahu. Drawing on Indigenous weaving and creation stories, the twelve-minute video traces the interconnectedness of water, bodies, and ancestral land. It was shown in the Fifty-Third Annual UC Berkeley Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition at BAMPFA (May 10 – July 23, 2023).
Artwork Type
Film / Video
Materiality
Video / Digital Video
Climate & Ecology Themes
Toxicity and Chemical Exposure
Water and Drought
Indigenous Knowledge and Sovereignty
Concepts
Place and Belonging
Methods & Approaches
Storytelling / Narrative Practice
Audience / Engagement Type
Public / General Audience
Location
Kapūkakī (Red Hill), O‘ahu, Hawai‘i; shown at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, California
Geographic Scope
Site-Specific / Single Site
Rights
Rights held by artist or creator
Affiliated Organizations
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Item sets
California Art & Climate Archive
UC Berkeley
Media
At dusk, a figure bends low in a shallow concrete-lined stream, hand reaching toward the water. The channel glows a dull rose under the fading sky, walls of graffiti and houses above, as if the water itself were holding its breath.Tiare Ribeaux, Pō‘ele Wai (As the Water Darkens) 1
Embedded video: the trailer for Pō‘ele Wai, a film about a weaver on O‘ahu who discovers her drinking water has been poisoned by petroleum leaking from Kapūkakī (Red Hill).Tiare Ribeaux, Pō‘ele Wai (As the Water Darkens) 2