Calling a Hawaiian a "coconut" was plenty insulting back in the day, evoking the notion of "brown on the outside, white on the inside." But "Niu Aspirations," an exhibit at the ARTS at Marks Garage, tries to make a positive out of the put-down.

The inspiration for the exhibit came from a mo‘olelo (story) by Sam Ka‘ai, a cultural practitioner from Maui, about a "good coconut," said Noelle Kahanu, a coordinator of the exhibit who suggested it as a theme after hearing the story.

Ka‘ai’s tale tells of the niu, which can float to shore and "give life from one place to another" by providing material for food and shelter.

"He was taking a negative connotation and making it positive almost spiritually," Kahanu said. "You’re looking at all the things that a coconut represents, to the cordage, to the apu (cup) that they use to serve the awa in, to the nets they use to bring the fish in to serve the people and the gods."

The exhibit is part of the seventh annual Maoli Arts Month, or MAMo. MAMo’s focus is "honoring and elevating and really showcasing our Native Hawaiian visual artists," Kahanu said. "You have hula taking off with Merrie Monarch, you’ve got the Hoku awards for music, so it’s like the visual arts have become this last arena where Hawaiian artists really lack the kind of recognition that they truly deserve."

The display comprises the works of 16 artists in a variety of media including painting, photography, video, sculpture and glass.

Kunane Wooton’s elegant wooden bowl has a hook made from a warthog tusk embedded in the edge "that represents this notion of the restraint you feel when you’re supposed to do something and you don’t know whether you should, or whether you’re supposed to say something," Kahanu said.

The inside of the bowl is mottled with small circular dimples that connote the niu. "Inside sort of represents that entanglement of where does that voice come, whose voice is it?" Kahanu said. "Is it an ancestral voice? Is it a voice you heard when you were growing up calling you to action?"

Solomon Enos contributed a series of paintings of "People of Old" from Oahu’s Leeward coast. Representing archetypes of locations such as Makaha, Makua and Kaena, the noble figures recall Michelangelo’s David as they carry fishing gear, farm implements or other tools that define their roles in society.

Sculptor Bob Freitas, who also coordinated the exhibit, contributed "One-Way Journey," a face set against a black star with a circular structure that recalls a navigational device, and an arrow pointing outward. Freitas said the piece represents the path one takes from darkness and the various guidance and reference points one encounters along the way.

"The point is that everybody makes their own individual choices as they’re going down that road," he said.

Freitas pointed out that "Niu Aspirations" contains work by both established and emerging artists to reflect a "contemporary Hawaiian arts movement."

"The minute you say ‘Hawaiian’ and ‘art’ in the same line, people want to relegate it to craft, and the reason why is because people say ‘Hawaiians are great at crafts. They do great straw hats,’" he said. "By saying they don’t do a great fine art, you’re negating a whole element of their culture of people who do, in fact, do great fine art."

Kahanu said developing the exhibit forced her to re-examine her own feelings about her ancestry.

"The first version of the exhibit was called ‘Aspirations of a Good Coconut.’ And then someone asked me, ‘Is it autobiographical?’ And I was offended," she said.

"But then I started to think that’s the whole point: to not be offended. The point is to reclaim all the connotations that are positive about what a coconut does."