The Wing Luke Museum Board of Trustees appointed Kamahanahokulani Farrar Law as interim director in mid-September after announcing the departure of Joël Barraquiel Tan, the previous director. Farrar Law previously served as the Museum’s senior director of Finance and Operations, and oversaw the museum’s Finance, Human Resources, Museum Services, and Technology and Infrastructure departments.
Barraquiel Tan cited many factors in the decision to leave, from navigating challenges in the Chinatown International District (CID) neighborhood to personal wellness. The museum also faced a hate crime attack in September last year. In May, public controversy over language in an exhibit led to staff walkout that made national and international news and led to closure of the museum for part of May and June. A group of museum workers staged a walkout protesting a panel in the exhibit which they said falsely equated calls for Palestinian solidarity and critiques of Israel as terrorism and anti-Semitism.
The Wing’s Board of Trustees will begin a search for the new permanent director.
Farrar Law has worked for the museum since September 2023. She previously served as executive director of Na Pu’uwai, Native Hawaiian Health Care System for six years, and has over 25 years in administrative and operations management.
She is Native Hawaiian and is the first Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander person to serve as executive director of the Wing.
In Hawai’i, Farrar Law worked on public health in Native Hawaiian communities and Native Hawaiian land rights. She sees similarities between her work in health, and the Wing’s recent Arts & Culture as Apothecary initiative.
But as the Wing’s Board of Trustees starts the search for a new permanent director, Farrar Law said she will not apply for the permanent job.
“My primary role, my focus is to stabilize because we’ve had two big leadership changes recently, and to ensure that our operations continue,” Farrar Law said in an interview with the Examiner. Recently, Wing deputy director Cassie Chinn also left the museum.
Before working at the Wing, Farrar Law was a member, often visiting while her child attended University of Puget Sound. “It’s so amazing the way you feel when you walk into exhibits, the way you feel when you enter the museum and learn about the stories,” she said.
She was inspired to join the museum by executive director Barraquiel Tan’s vision for growth and the museum’s Community Advisory Committee (CAC) process in which artists, community leaders, and staff work to develop exhibit storylines and curate artifacts.
Farrar Law was raised in Kailua, Hawai’i and attended college at Pacific University in Oregon. She lived in Oregon for some 20 years with a stint in Washington DC before returning to Hawai’i to earn a Masters degree and direct the Na Pu’uwai, Native Hawaiian Health Care System.
She was the first in her family to attend college. “My mother finally said to me, ‘You know that when you go away, don’t forget where you came from, and one day you need to come home and help your people,’” Farrar Law said. “I returned back to Hawai’i because I felt the pressure — somebody pulled a culture card on me, saying, ‘Your people need you. Hawaiians are dying.’”
Farrar Law is candid about the huge sense of responsibility she feels serving as executive director of the Wing. “There are pretty amazing people that have been in this position before me, and instead of that freaking me out, feeling like I can’t ever measure up to them, I kind of use it as a place of strength to be really grateful that we’ve had a lot of really great leaders and a great community who are here supporting us,” she said.
When the walkout over Confronting Hate Together happened, “I was sad, I was disappointed, I was concerned,” Farrar Law said. “I tend to be solution oriented, to try to figure out, like, what are our options?”
Farrar Law believes the museum is still in the process of recovering from the impact of the walkout and its aftermath, but she feels the work is “on an upwards motion.”
“We have structures in place for communication and check-ins and support. At the same time, really focusing on the work that we’ve made commitments to – the artists, to the community, to funders,” she said. “So refocusing and finding that balance and looking for a way to really offer grace and compassion to each other.”
“We are a very fortunate organization to have a really strong support, whether it’s community members, staff, board members, donors, funders,” Farrar Law continued. “Our base of support, I think, is really strong and it’s a beautiful place. We have beautiful art. We get to work with amazing people. And I think all of those things are the same today as they were a year ago when I first entered and I think that’s kind of the base of strength that we work from.”
