Big Island artist Hiko Hanapi was one of the driving forces behind O'ahu's Maoli Arts Month, the second edition of which ended two weeks ago. Now he's casting his creative net further.

The tireless arts educator has spearheaded the Big Island's Piko Gathering of Indigenous Visual Artists, which takes place at three different venues beginning this weekend.

This is the fifth gathering of indigenous artists — the first was held in New Zealand in 1995 — and the first time it is being held in Hawai'i.

Piko isn't simply about showing art, it's a venue to create it.

Artists from throughout the Pacific and beyond — Jean Lewis Dick will be flying in from Mauritius — will work in seclusion within art studios at Hawai'i Preparatory Academy from Monday to June 22.

"While they work, people dialogue," explained Hanapi, by phone from his home in Waimea. "And with the caliber of these artists ... for all of them to come together at this one time is a big thing. So we want to guard their privacy."

The artists range from masters and university art professors to emerging talent — people such as Bob Jahnkem, Christina Wirihana and June Grant from New Zealand; Navajo-Seminole photojournalist Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie; and Santa Fe sculptor Ed Archie NoiseCat.

About 55 Native Hawaiian artists, including Punahou graduate Herman Pi'ikea Clark, who now teaches at New Zealand's Massey University, will also participate.

"They come to collaborate and create art on a huge scale," Hanapi said.

His Keomailani Hanapi Foundation is the event's lead coordinator, with the help of a 27-member steering community.

"Fundraising was difficult," Hanapi said. Planning started in 2005, and the Ford Foundation was the first organization to step up to the financial plate, with a grant of $75,000. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs then followed, along with the Hawai'i County Product Enrichment Program, part of the Hawai'i Tourism Authority. Smaller grants came from groups such as the PA'I Foundation.

Help also came in the form of Hawai'i Preparatory Academy. When organizers found the going Big Island hotel rates were prohibitively expensive for visiting artists, the school offered to lodge them in its dormitories.

SHARING MANA'O

Venerated Maori painter Sandy Adsett and Tina Kuckkahn, director of Evergreen State College's Longhouse Education and Cultural Center in Washington, have been major international coordinators of the indigenous art gatherings.

Both will attend Piko. Adsett is bringing about 37 Maori artists. He's also bringing his mana'o.

"He's a vital force in Maori art," Hanapi said. "He pioneered the Maori schools — Maoris have their own schools, and that's one of the reasons we're doing Piko is to tap into that."

Because for the Keomailani Hanapi Foundation, Piko is "the spark that's going to ignite this 10-year plan that our organization has," Hanapi said.

"We're trying to create our own schools, we'll focus on native Hawaiian fine arts."

The plan also includes creating on Hawaiian homestead land a community art center that would provide jobs for residents, and the establishment of an arts market along the lines of New Mexico's hugely successful Santa Fe Indian Market.

"Rather than have Wal-Mart (on Hawaiian homestead land), we'd like to have something that would support an art industry — Pictures Plus, art galleries — so that people can visit and find authentic Hawaiian art," Hanapi said. "The bottom line is community well-being."

The recent national survey by Americans for the Arts, which found that nonprofit arts groups on Maui generate $22 million a year in spending on the island, supports the economic ambitions of the foundation's plan.

IT'S ABOUT TIME

Jo Ann Kahanamoku Sterling, a veteran artist whose medium is featherwork, is busy preparing the ballroom at the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort for its exhibition of Piko works.

"I was in KTA and saw all these coconuts already peeled, so I bought a dozen," she said, laughing. She also borrowed indigenous plants from the Bishop Museum's Amy Greenwell Botanical Garden.

"It's an art show, but it's also to show the guest artists who we are," said Kahanamoku Sterling, "the plants, the fruit, the protocol."

On Saturday, Ku'uhoa Ballao will welcome the Piko participants with an oli. "It will be very typical, with kahili bearers — not to overdo it, but to put it into perspective of the formal protocol," Kahanamoku Sterling said.

As for the art, she thinks "it's about time that the artists are being brought forth. You have the dancers, singers — why not the artists? It's not easy for them to be able to put their work in galleries."

Reach Lesa Griffith at lgriffith@honoluluadvertiser.com.