Iune (June) Word of the Month: "Hula"
One
of most beautiful and personal form of Hawaiian expression is the Hula. In
Hawaiian Culture, the hula is more than just a dance. From
a young age, I was taught that hula is a way to perpetuate the Hawaiian
Culture. Under the surface is a cultural system that celebrates creation,
cherished family treasures, ancestral beings, and natural manifestations of
life forces that nurtures and sustains the Hawaiian people.
Referring
back to May’s Hawaiian word of the month “Aloha”, hula is also a way of life
and has a similar meaning as well.
“Be
in unity and harmony with your real self and mankind. Be honest, truthful,
patient, kind to all forms, and humble”
With
years of study, I've learnt hula is a ha’aha’a, humbling, experience. No matter
if it’s a kupuna (elder), professor, or kumu hula (hula teacher), they all hope
for their haumāna (students) or ‘ohana (family) to instill more knowledge they
can acquire. Hula is carefully maintained, presented, and passed on from generation
to the next.
In
the early 1800’s, protestant missionaries banned hula. They felt it was a pagan
ritual dance with sinful movements. Hula survived because adherents maintained
it underground, out of the sphere of missionary censor and suppression. It was the reigning of Hawaii’s last king,
David Kalākaua, who restored the hula in the late 1800’s. He is the creator of the Merrie Monarch Hula
Festival which is held once a year in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii. The Merrie Monarch
is a non-profit organization with a week long of festivities. The legacy left by
King Kalākaua continues to perpetuate our traditions, native language, and the
arts. He proclaimed, “Hula is the language of the heart, therefore the
heartbeat of the Hawaiian people”.
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