In the exhibition, Ku was displayed on a high pedestal whose base was formed by volcanic rocks from Hawai’i. This was the result of a Hawai’an expert’s advice, La’akea Suganuma, who has a special affinity to Ku as a war god. It had been Suganuma, accompanied by three further Hawaiian experts, who had come to Göttingen during the preparations of the exhibition, in order to meet the feather image for the first time, to bless it and to escort it back to Hawai’i. La’akea Suganuma is president of the Royal Hawaiian Academy of Traditional Arts and instructor in lua or ‘bone breaking’, a form of Hawaiian martial arts, closely associated with Ku. Suganuma had a leading role in the Hawaiian cultural protocol regarding Ku from the beginning to the end of the exhibition (Hauser-Schäublin 2020: 16).

I would also like to comment on the ki‘i akua hulu manu (feathered god image), which was displayed on a tall pedestal and rock platform. I found the altar-like setting perplexing and there was no explanation for it. It seemed overly dramatic, and I feel it encouraged people to leave ho’o kupu (offerings), not understanding how this particular Ku (ancestral deity associated with politics or war) may have functioned as a private god for designated followers rather than a public god for all to worship (Andrade 2007: 342).