Day after day, a large marble figure fades into the backdrop of students’ commutes as they rush to their next classes. Few glance up to notice it, but if they did, they would be drawn into its orbit.
Standing atop a pedestal near the northern stairs of the University of Hawaiʻi’s campus center, the Hina O Nalani, or Mother of the Universe, watches over the area. Radiating with warmth it gathers from the sun, its pink and grey speckled surface fades into its surroundings. Without drawing attention to herself, she stands watch over her children.
Chiseled from a five-ton piece of Minnesota granite, her soft edges convey a sense of comfort, yet her form casts shadows, revealing a distinctive femininity. Sanded and polished by her sculptor, Gregory Clurman, she lacks specific details— her face being a blank canvas where one can project the features of the strong women in their lives.
Her hair is rough, unpolished, evokes a sense of texture and rugged strength—a reminder of the resilience that defines the matriarch.
Despite her grand stature, she lies beyond the focus of passersby. Julius Dagdagan, a first-year biology student, walks past the sculpture multiple times a day, four times a week yet has never stopped to look at it.
“I’ve noticed it, but I don’t know anything about it,” he said before commenting that the statue fades into the background of his college life.
Much like the family members who send their children off to college, Hina o Nalani fades into the background of students’ lives, ever present but often overlooked. In true motherly fashion, she watches quietly as they grow and change over the years.
With her form coming from the dimensions of the granite she was carved from, her sculptor, according to the Public Art Archive, said that it will “outlive all of us.”
Though in plain sight, her presence may feel invisible. If you stop to notice her, you too will be pulled into her orbit. Hina o Nalani, much like the quiet figures of family and tradition, stands watch over the university—a testament to the unseen forces that guide us, even as we rush by, caught up in our own lives.
