When the Lid Lifts
A Hawaiian poi bowl for a friend's newborn
The ask
My best friend just had a baby girl in Honolulu. Her husband's family is Hawaiian, and his grandmother has already said the first food will be poi. I'd like to send something for that first meal, made in the islands, that the family will keep. Around $1,500.
The gift
A lidded milo ʻumeke by the Honolulu woodturner Gordon Tang, five inches tall, in the covered form of a Hawaiian poi bowl. Milo was favored for poi because it has no sap to flavor food; koa, which can leave a bitter taste, was less often used for eating. We deliver it to the family in Honolulu, ahead of her first poi.
Why it's extraordinary
In many Hawaiian families, poi is a baby's first food. By custom, no one argues while a bowl of poi is uncovered, because kalo, the taro it is made from, is honored as an ancestor of the Hawaiian people.
The moment
The lid comes off for her first spoonful of poi, at a table where, by the old rule, any argument has to wait.
A curator replies within one business day.
