Months Two: It’s mid December of 2020 coming up to Christmas and while the pandemic ravages on across Hawai’i, Hula still reigns with masks and social distancing. The greatest recent blessings to possibly have in this halau and entire Hawaiian experience, is being given a halau name. Or better yet, a HAWAIIAN name, one with meaning, purpose, and one that describes what makes me, me. But one that also creates a trajectory and clear path for me in this halau.
Doing My Part as a Kane
I’ve been in this hālau for two months so far, and I’ve unofficially crossed over the point of being a welcomed stranger to a new official member of the hālau. As an official member of a traditional hālau that doesnt ask for dues or member ship like other hālau hula, the payment comes in the form of doing your part. Some members have project that involve archaeology, planning events, taking care of business, etc. For me, I was given the task and project of gathering ideas and quotes for apparel for the guys. Including what kind of shirts we want, quantities, whether or not we want to do a fundraiser or not. Every month members hop on zoom with our kumu and we discuss bullet points of projects and or events coming up for our group. And this past month I was given the opportunity to do a virtual presentation of my gathered quotes and gathered feedback from everyone. I may have been invited into the hālau learning hula and all. But having a job and task that will benefit the guys and the organization is a honor to have, even if it’s as simple as apparel.
Month Three
Presenting my First HO’OKUPU
What is ho’okupu? This is an ancient Hawaiian tradition that has remained strong in Hawai’i and involves a gifting and offering to the aina. Usually this is done when entering a new place you haven’t been yet, whether it’s someones home or a pa hula (hula mound). For ho’okupu, there are a few things that are fundamental to perform it properly and of tradition.
Oli (Chant)
Oli is crucial and depending on where you come from, depends on what is chanted. The story that is chanted usually reflects where you or the hālau comes from and tells a story of that location. In our hālau’s case, we learned a chant that represented Nānākuli, depicting ones journey from the sea to the mountains during ancient times, the struggles of the hot sun, harsh terrain, in search of a place to stay. Prior to walking into someones hale or pa hula, the chant is….well chanted and in the end asks for proper permission to enter.
Ho’okupu
Is the gift or offering which is directly offered to the land.
Jason Momoa performs ho’okupu on Mauna Kea
Makana
Makana is an offering to the person and or ohana that is welcoming you or the hālau. My experience was that we were all to get goods and snacks to give to the family to enjoy. It was appropriate this way as it involved to small children, so um a bottle of Jim Bean would just be inappropriate.
This past weekend was a HUGE hula weekend and packed full of new experiences and I seriously can’t put in words. We all learned our oli to ask for permission, put together our makana and ho’okupu, and just experienced by true first traditional hawaiian ceremony that I was a major part of. Our ceremony was small and private on private property high in the mountains above Kapolei and Nānākuli. We were all welcome to an ancient pa hula that in the past 20 years had been cleared up and excavated for use of doing hula. After our ho’okupu, we entered the pa hula and continued on with hula practice and my god, what a blessing it was to be there. You just could feel the mana (power) in the place!
Dressing Up for the First Time
Hula dancers wear a multitude of things and the hawaiian words for all of them, I do not understand or know the names to yet. But at the moment, all I know in these months in being in this voyage of hula is that as a kane, I will at some point where what is called a malo, loincloth that most hula kahiko dancers wear. It’s simply a cloth that covers the front, sometimes the back and hold all the….essentials in place. Our hālau was asked to be in a music video filming kane of several different halaus and it was the perfect time for me to wear one in a setting that didn’t involve hundreds of people, not that that mattered.
While in the outside world, people look at this as unusual or sexual but in fact it is cultural and what was worn in ancient Hawai’i for many many years. Wearing this felt unusual, invasive to “privacy”, and quite tight (better tight than falling off on a roll), but for the sake of diving head first into a culture as I would in my world travels, this is EXACTLY where I wanted to be. Wearing a malo and leis around my ankles, head, and hands performing hula as a Hawaiian transplant like I am.
Blessed, proud, & ecstatic to announce that I’ve officially joined a hālau hula(hula school) here on O’ahu, Hawai’i. Through a Tiktok I posted a couple of months ago, I was invited by a member of the hālau who gave reference to his kumu (leader) about how I wanted to learn more about Hawaiian culture and find a way to give back. After explaining through a zoom meet, yesterday I had my first practice and absolutely loved it (as I anticipated anyways). My legs hurt (as anticipated also) but ready to get some stronger legs. I am doing this not only for the workout, but to explore the inner roots of these Hawaiian islands through one of its most important features apart from Hawaiian language, and that’s through hula dance which tells a story through hand and arm movements! This experience is something I would seek out in my travels. Blessed to do it right here at home. As of today, I have officially joined the halau.
! I can’t believe it!!!! It also felt so empowering to be a contribution in preserving such a strong cultural practice and that is Hawaiian hula
