Despite Hawai'i's location at the northern apex of Polynesia, visual arts education in Hawai'i is predominately west facing in its orientation. Defining visual arts solely along European/American conventions and history, arts education as practiced in Hawai'i does little to acknowledge and engage the diversity of cultural perspectives long represented in the islands. Of particular concern has been the exclusion of cultural perspectives of Kanaka Maoli, the indigenous people of Hawai'i, within both the curriculum for art education at the University of Hawai'i and the art curriculum of Hawai'i's public school system. In this paper, the author argues for the development of a visual arts curriculum that is grounded in the cultural perspective of Kanaka Maoli. He does this in response to the Hawai'i Department of Education's (1999) western-oriented visual arts curriculum document, "Fine art content standards". His intention is to promote the expansion of the knowledge foundation for the study of art/visual culture generally and, more specifically, to promote the broader development of a comprehensive theory for Kanaka Maoli education.