Exhibition celebrates work of President Obama's mother

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Honolulu, Hawaii (CNN)Nov 12 -- In her own right, Ann Dunham, the mother of the 44th president of the United States lived an accomplished, international life that began in white-bread Kansas, weaved through Asia-light Hawaii and wound up in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Across this east-west palette, Dunham's family and friends paint her as an ardent anthropologist, early maven of microfinance and a cultured, curious explorer.

Her daughter, Maya Soetoro-Ng, proudly wrote of her mother's anthropological work in Surviving Against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia, a book based on Dunham's original dissertation from the early 1990s.

"She had so much respect for the communities where she conducted her research. Always logical and rigorous, our mother's scholarship was made truly meaningful by the fact that she loved the people she wrote about and hoped others would hear their song . . ."

read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/12/world/asia/dunham-exhibition/




Through Her Eyes: S. Ann Dunham's Fieldwork in Indonesia runs through January 8, 2012 at the East-West Center Gallery, University of Hawaii Manoa. It includes photographs taken during Ann Dunham's years of field research in Indonesia as well as personal artifacts which include examples of metal smithing, jewelry and basketry made in the villages of Indonesia. Dunham's personal art and artifact collection has been augmented by recent purchases to give wider context to her work in Indonesia.

Watch a slide show of pieces from Ann Dunham's collection and see a batik artist demonstrating the craft: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/entertainment/art/batik/index.html?type=flash