Malia Solomon

Mary "Aunty Malia" Blanchard Solomon (November 24, 1915 – May 8, 2005) was a Hawaiian textile artist and expert on Hawaiian customs, crafts, and culture. Solomon researched and traveled across the South Pacific to regain lost knowledge about kapa, the traditional Hawaiian craft of making cloth from the fibers of trees. The Chicago Tribune called Solomon one of Hawaii's "foremost amateur anthropologist/historians."

Biography Mary Blanchard Solomon was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on November 24, 1915. Solomon grew up in a poor section of Honolulu. They established a catering business in California, where they lived for ten years, but returned the family to Hawaii after growing homesick for the islands. Solomon ran Ulu Mau for ten years, while traveling and studying to learn more about the pre-Western cultural traditions of Hawaii. She traveled to locations were tapa cloth (bark cloth) was being made, including Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, Fiji and the Marquesas and Cook Islands, exploring dyes and techniques that would have been used by ancient Hawaiians.

After Ulu Mau Village closed, Solomon led tours sharing her knowledge of Hawaii's history and culture.

Solomon is credited with helping revive the art of kapa in Hawaii. her work is still displayed there, after extensive restoration by the Bishop Museum.

Solomon was profiled on the PBS series American Perspective, in a segment called "Aunty Malia: Tapa Maker."

In 1988 the Hawaii State Legislature passed a resolution declaring Solomon a "ambassadress of good will."