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1.6.1: Hawai’i

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    288397
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    Hawai’ian Hula facilitates numerous cultural functions to keep Hawaiian society stable, healthy, productive, and empowered. Comprised of two basic styles, in both its ancient and modern forms, Hula Kahiko (ancient) is performed to the gourd drum percussions with hand movements matched to vocalized chants, or mele. Hula Auana (modern) can also be gentle and flowing but accompanied by a ukulele or performed in conjunction to contemporary music.

    Hula tells stories not only to the native populations, but to tourists as well and after performances, an offering of a flower lei would traditionally be left at an alter dedicated to the fertility navigator goddess Laka. The ancient dance form was used for celebrating births, marriages, and religious ceremonies, and today commemorates inaugurations, picnics, family reunions, and graduations. Hula is a story telling device where dancers use hand gestures and their eyes to portray their mythological tales. In 1778 Captain Cook landed on Kauai and following that, missionaries from various Christian denominations arrived in the subsequent centuries. The sensual and uninhibited display of bare breasted female dancers swaying their hips and feet to keep time with undulations and fluidity of nature, was shocking to the westerners (Keali’nohomoku, 1976).

    A person wearing a flower crown and a wreathDescription automatically generated
    Figure 1.14. Hula Kahiko performed at Volcanoes National Park. (Ardis, R. (2004, 28 August). Hula Kahiko at Volcanoes National Park. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hula_Kahiko_Hawaii_Volcanoes_National_Park_01.jpg )

    While the Hula dancers were connected to the flow and rhythms of their natural habitat, the missionaries believed these traditional dances should be banned and went about suppressing Hula as colonization expanded. However, it was King Kalākaua, sometimes called The Merrie Monarch, who was crowned in 1883 and he requested traditional ukelele music and Hula dancers at his coronation ceremony. At that time, Hula was banned throughout the Kingdom of Hawai’i, but one goal of his reign was to preserve ancient Hawaiian traditions while facing, head-on, the modern world of international politics and economic exchange. The Merrie Monarch’s coronation represented the transition between the colonial ways and the empowered resurgence of pride in Hawai’ian culture. He presided over a Hawaiian cultural renaissance, where Hawai’ian language immersion program in schools included education in traditions including dance (Torgersen, 2010). Today, traditional Hula and innovations in Hula is celebrated annually at the Merrie Monarch festival.


    This page titled 1.6.1: Hawai’i is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Debra Worth.

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