December 27, 2017
“ALOHA HAJEN”
By Mung Monster
The idea that Native Americans and Polynesians share a close kinship is an old idea but gaining renewed in interest in recent years with discovery of DNA links. On a personal quest to explore the commonality between his culture and the native people of Arizona, Hawaiian illustrator, tattoo artist, designer, and muralist Kahiau Beamer, aka Mung Monster, says this 16th Street painting in the Calle 16 Arts District embodies his experience participating in the 2015 Paint PHX festival. Combining the native Hawaiian greeting “Aloha” with “Hajen,” explained to him by Breeze1 as meaning “relative” or “kin” in his native tongue, “Aloha Hajen” tells of a “meeting between two travelers and their spirit guides, clearly from different backgrounds but still addressing one another with a familial respect.” @mungmonster @kahiau_art @paintphx @calle16phx
