Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 12, Number 8, 1 August 1995 — OHA hula conference explores tradition of dance [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA hula conference explores tradition of dance

by JeffClark Hula traditions and how they influence us - that's what OHA culture specialist Manu Boyd told roughly 200 kumu hula and 'ōlapa would be illustrated by Laukanaka ka Hula. The 'aha hula, held July 1-2 on the campus of the Kamehameha Schools, was the latest in OHA's series of Hawaiian cultural eonferences, or 'aha no'eau. "This is how we do things" There were a number of panels allowing for the expression of mana'o from some of the giants of hula. One such giant, diminutive Pat Nāmaka Bacon, impressed all by stating, "I started dancing about 70 years ago." During a panel discussion on protocol and genealogy, Bacon, the hānai daughter of Mary Kawena Pukui, said Pukui's grandmother was a court dancer for Oueen Emma.

Panelist Cy Bridges defined protocol as "etiquette," or precepts that say, "This is how we do things." Bridges said mueh protocol was eliminated by the breakdown of the kapu system that eame with Christianity's growth in Hawai'i. The sense of a rigid protocol has been further diminished by lots of "borrowing" from other island cultures, "because the chiefly lines are alive and well in other islands," he said. Bridges gave an example of the observance of protocol: It's easy, especially with the proliferation of videotaping, to appropriate dance moyes from other hālau. Protocol, hōwever, prescribes that "You don't just go and take," he said, He talked of admiring a step used by another hālau but never

using it himself because he didn't formally ask the other hālau for permission. Hoakalei Kamau'u said a relatively recent manifestation of protocol - the practice of giving and getting certificates for advancement in hula - is "more the haole way." She said it was inconsequential that all her certificates were destroyed when her house in Nānākuli burned down because "the knowledge stays within." Bridges also discounts worldly symbols of accomplishment in favor of mana'o more lasting -

notably, mana'o telling him his kūpuna would approve. He cites two occasions in his career as carrying mueh weight: when his aunties said of his chanting, "He sounds just hke his tūtū, just like the old man"; and when, as he received an award at the Merrie Monarch festival, a judge whispered in his ear, "Grandma would be so proud of you." Some vestiges of protocol may be hard to understand, Kamau'u conceded, but that's because they are the product of another era. "Today we could never under-

stand how it was back then," she pointed out. Still, the practices must be respected. So even though you may not understand the impetus or purpose of a certain tradition, follow it anyway: "Leave things alone," she said. For example, she said, don't start a performance with a mele ma'i because the mele ma'i (a personal chant usually honoring the ali'i) was traditionally performed at the end. Respect the old, she implored, and "Keep what you have learned." "Don't ever compromise. ... hold fast to those good things that you've learned," Bridges added. He compared hula traditions to a pieee of kapa or a lei hulu. "Take care of it, cherish it, protect it."

Mele, oli Moderator Moses Kaho'okele Crabbe asked the panelists to define traditional mele, or what mele means to them. Nālani Kanaka'ole said mele oli is a chant form "in whieh you ask for something. You ask the gods for something, to invoke gods and people seen and not seen; *Please, may I have permission to give this chant.'" She contrasted oli with mele, whieh she said contain all of the elements of culture, from hierarchies of gods to remembrances of particular events. "It's all in the mele: all we have to do is research and look in the meles." Kalena Silva agreed, and suggested that Kanaka'ole's mana'o holds true for all peoples. If you want to get to the heart of a eulture, "Go to their mele," he advised. Can anyone chant? The panelists shared enlightening mana'o about the democratic

nature of folk art, namely, that because chanting was done for utilitarian purposes, it was something that the eommon people commonly did. This phase of the discussion was prompted by Crabbe's question, "Can anyone chant?" "Yes," Kalani Akana affirmed. "Our kūpuna chanted before they went fishing, they chanted all the time." He said having a skillful throat and vocal chords is not allimportant: "It's not the voice, it's the ability to memorize." "Our people chanted," Kanaka'ole agreed. "Everyone ean chant, but it's how they remember their chants and what they put across to their people that's important."

Silva, too, said that chant was at one time the domain of the rank and file, and not the lofty artistic discipline it is considered to be in modern Hawai'i. "This separation between audience and performer is something relatively new. Before, everybody could do it," he said. He added that the "separation" he mentioned is "something we ean work to try to overcome." Chanting should be done "not just on stage," he implored, but also for common-but-special oeeasions like a visit from long-absent friends. Some attendees said the conferenee ended too quickly; although it would be no small task to assimilate the abundance of knowledge shared during the weekend, many were left with a thirst for still more mana'o from the assemblage of Hawaiian dance masters. As Hoakalei Kamau'u said in the 'aha's very first panel, "There's so mueh to learn. You never learn everything."

Kahiko or 'auana - what's your pleasure? These photos from this year's King Kamehameha Hula Competition illustrate both. At left, hula kahiko by 'olapa from Nā Mele Hula 'Ohana. At right, a member of Naipo Nā Mea Hula demonstrates hula 'auana. Photos courtesy of the King Kamehameha Celebration Commission

II.ii i ■■ ■■■i» i ii i--. i.. ,,, ii i .i. i. ,, , ,i Pono Murray of Hālau Hula o ka Makani Wili Mākaha o Kaua'ula delivers his second-place oli during this year's Kamehameha Hula Competition. Chant is an integral part of ancient hula.