|
Maui Island Press
Category:
Travel
Publisher: Maui Island Press
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 177
Copyright: 2008
ISBN-13: 9780976513612
A guide to the history, culture and community life of the Hawaiian Islands, Island Life 101 is a must-read for anyone thinking of moving to Hawaii, as well as those who love the Island lifestyle.
Contents of Island Life 101
Islands in Transition ● 1
Things are changing in Hawaiÿi. Why it matters to newcomers as well as long-time residents.
A Newcomer’s Guide to Hawaiian History ● 9
Before you can understand life in Hawaiÿi, you need to know how the past shaped the present.
The Islands Today ● 62
What’s happening with some key current issues.
Island Communities ● 78
Each island is different, each wonderful in its own way. Here are brief profiles of the eight main islands of Hawaiÿi.
Mixed Plate ● 97
Many ingredients make up the “stew” that is Hawaiÿi today. Here are stories and practical information to help you understand and appreciate Island culture.
Settling In ● 126
Some tips and resources for getting established and getting along.
Beloved Hawaiÿi ● 162
Sweet stories about this place show why so many people love it so much.
Glossary ● 170
Recommended Reading ● 173
The shelves are full of great books about Hawaiÿi. These are a few I like.
Index ● 178
Excerpt
The hula maiden, with swaying hips and “lovely hula hands,” is the legendary symbol of Hawaii.
But this art form, passed down through generations, is far more than a pretty dance.
The hula of old Hawaii, now called kahiko (ancient, old), was a ritual of religion and communication. Its dancers were dedicated to perfect performance. Kahiko is exciting to watch, its performers strong and precise as they move to the beat of the drum and the chanter’s call. Dancers wear costumes based on ancient Hawaiian garb—simple cotton tops, skirts, or loincloths printed to look like kapa, ti leaf skirts, and ferns or vines woven into lei for the neck and head, wrists and ankles.
In the old days, children were selected in childhood or even before birth for hula training. They spent their formative years separated from the outside world, under the care of a kumu hula, or hula master, and their lives were dedicated to the goddess Laka, patron of the hula. Chants and dance preserved the history of a people’s births, deaths, loves, and battles. Hula was danced for religious purposes, but also as entertainment, in hope of successful crops or battles, at funerals or to celebrate human fertility.
The first visitors to Hawaii didn’t understand that the dance had a vital place in the spiritual life of their hosts. Early sailors and traders saw what they wanted to see: semi-nude women with undulating hips.
When the missionaries arrived, they were shocked by dance they considered “lascivious.” They had come to convert, and though they were willing to accept the Hawaiians’ language in order to preach, this dancing had to go. For many years in the 19th century, missionary disapproval drove the hula underground.
Hula survived partly because some royalty continued to support it, and partly because dedicated families and individuals in out-of-the way places quietly continued to pass along their knowledge to succeeding generations.
King David Kalakaua, remembered as the Merrie Monarch for his love of song and dance, sparked a brief cultural renaissance in the 1880s. The hula schools came out of hiding, and dancers performed at his coronation and again at his 50th birthday party.
Kalakaua’s fascination with things foreign also helped bring about the modern style, called auwana (to wander, drift, go astray). Dancers in his time began to include the steps of contemporary popular dances, and they moved to the gliding rhythms of the guitar and ukulele, rather than the dramatic beat of the pahu (drum) and ipu (gourd). Costumes worn by today’s dancers often reflect the elegant European styles of Hawaii’s royal court. Auwana is the form of hula most familiar to the outside world.
After Kalakaua died, and his sister Liliuokalani lost her throne, hula began a long decline into the 20th century. When Hawaiian music became a fad in the early 1900s, people who never had been to Hawaii wrote songs and danced what they claimed to be hula on Mainland stages. The old mystery of Hawaii was cheapened by a hootchie-koochie image.
Ironically, while Hollywood went crazy over Hawaii, the culture was suppressed in the Islands, where some families forbade their children to learn to speak Hawaiian or to dance hula.
Still, the image of the lovely hula dancer spread around the world. Military people stationed in the islands during World War II went home with memories of lilting Hawaiian tunes and a smattering of hula learned from friendly Islanders. And in Island backyards and living rooms, the real culture survived as elders continued to teach their arts to the young.
When the revival of Hawaiian pride began in the 1970s, the dancers were ready. Once more the chant was heard and the flashing movements of kahiko were seen in public.
Now the hula is in full flower. Young and old again dedicate themselves to the hula and the lifestyle that surrounds it. They grow or gather lei materials, make their own costumes and ornaments, and learn the Hawaiian language of songs and chants.
Today, most hula shows include at least a few dances in the kahiko style, along with the graceful swaying of the auwana. And families that have preserved the tradition for generations are stepping out in new directions, maintaining the discipline of their ancestors while innovating with chants and dances for our time.
In recent years, hula and Hawaiian music have spread around the globe. Leading kumu hula grew concerned that many students and even some teachers of the thousands of halau worldwide had never been to Hawaii. To remedy this, they organized the World Conference on Hula, held in 2001 in Hilo and in 2005 on Maui. The next will probably be held in 2009 on Oahu. Hundreds of dancers attend these gatherings, to experience the physical place that is hula’s home, to learn more about the arts that surround the dance, and to accept the kuleana, or responsibility, that is at the heart of the dance: the preservation of Hawaii’s culture.
|
