Amid the varied sights and sounds that accompany the crowds of collectors, artists and onlookers out in force this weekend for the 88th annual Santa Fe Indian Market, don't be surprised to see a Hawaiian lei or two.

A delegation of 21 Hawaiians is visiting Santa Fe to observe the workings of Indian Market and take ideas back for their own indigenous market later this year. The planned event is an outgrowth of a three-year Hawaiian Ohana for Education in the Arts project.

Hiko'ula Hanapi, board president for the Keomailani Hanapi Foundation, which is directing the project, said such markets are a way to preserve culture. "We are losing art forms," he said. "We like to come to a place that is successful and that blends the traditional and conventional."

His group is learning how the market is put together, examining the nuts-and-bolts of producing the event, finding out about costs and seeing how the market benefits artists.

Artists Harinani Orme and Meleanna Meyer were part of the Hawaiian contingent inside the Santa Fe Community Convention Center's Sweeney Ballroom on Friday, watching how the judging went and taking everything in as volunteers and staff prepared for the preview of this year's entries later that day.

Preserving traditions and art for future generations, Meyer said, guarantees a "continuation of our legacy. These are our voices. These are other forms of our voices. If you can see us and hear us and if we dance our stories, then we are here."

Markets are an exchange between peoples, Orme said. "When you take a piece home, you take a piece of us home," she said.

Hanapi said the foundation will have a booth in the nonprofit area of Indian Market at Cathedral Park. From 11 a.m.-1 p.m. today there will be a demonstration of the making of barkcloth, a cloth made from tree bark which Native Hawaiians used before the United States occupied their country.

The hope, he said, is that Hawaiian artists will begin visiting Indian Market on a yearly basis for an exchange of ideas and inspirations. This year's trip was paid for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the organization set up to protect and advocate for the rights of Native Hawaiians.

Contact Inez Russell at 986-3093 or irussell@sfnewmexican.com