Kani Ka ‘Ōpala: Take a Sad Song & Make it Better Exhibition
Dates: April 6, 2026-August 10, 2026
Location: Bridge Gallery, Hamilton Library, UH Mānoa
Kani Ka ʻŌpala logo with simplified human shape holding a long stick above a trashcan made into a drum. The ʻoʻ in ʻŌpala is a recycling symbol.
The Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) is delighted to highlight a new exhibition ‘Kani Ka ‘Ōpala: Take a Sad Song & Make it Better‘ curated by Dr. Benjamin Fairfield.
About the exhibition:
“Trash,” by definition, indicates that something is worthless, without further utility or value. Accepting that label at face value gives us license to throw it away. But where is away?
We don’t give tin cans a second thought most days. We open them up to get the SPAM, the beans, the corn, the tomato paste. We consume that content for nourishment, and we toss the can in the trash. We don’t acknowledge or thank that can for its amazing work, its journey. That aluminum was ripped from African soil, smelted down, shipped across the Atlantic, shaped into a cylinder, filled with ready-made food, shipped to us. All of this was very economical (the can costs basically nothing?) and safe (the food is consumable). Why don’t we thank the can, even as we give thanks for the meal? There are many things that sustain us that we tend to overlook at times – cans, or plastic, ‘āina, each other. How disconnected are we from that which nourishes us?
By labelling something rubbish or ‘ōpala, we write it off without further consideration as having no value. Disengage and send it away. The assumption that we can just cast off things we’ve devalued is laughable, of course. We know that can’s journey isn’t over once it’s thrown “away”. It goes to the trash, to the dumpster, onto a truck, to H-power, is burned into smoke and ash that we breathe in, swim in, and consume again. Things may shapeshift, but they never leave us, never go away.
“Trash.” The label lets us fool ourselves, bypass nuance, halt further analysis. What if we paused, questioned that label: is it really worthless? Does it really have no voice worth hearing? No song to sing? What if we instead turned this ‘garbage’ into musical instruments, valued and with voice again? And in doing so, find that we can join them in song? In the process of affirming their worth and potential, we enrich our own humanity, reciprocity, gratitude, and interconnectedness. It isn’t just about recycling; it’s about choosing communion over convenience.
If we devalue and write something off, we miss out on the potential enrichment it may offer. There may just be a story, a commonality, a thriving we can achieve together if we give that which would be easy to discard a chance and put a pause on the quick and easy labeling we tend to do in a politicized society.
About the artist:
Benjamin Fairfield received his MA and PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where he serves as lecturer and founder of the MUS311 Thai Ensemble (a sustainability-focused course where students repurpose found objects into Thai musical instruments). He has taught music at Ala Wai Elementary, produced a high school garage band rock album in Thailand as a Peace Corps volunteer, and has published in various literary and academic journals. His illustrated children’s book about repurposing rubbish into musical instruments, Kani Ka ʻŌpala: How can garbage sing? was published by UH Press in September 2025.
Dr. Fairfield’s work with sustainable instruments and the exhibit is supported by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies. CSEAS also supported his MUS 311M Thai Ensemble course with funds from the National Resource Center grant.