| We were participating in the Price Lot Hula Festival, one of the most beautiful events on the Hawaiian cultural calendar and presented by the Moanalua Gardens Foundation. What makes this hula celebration so pretty, so downright photogenic, is the combination of dance and setting. What made it so memorable for us was stepping onto the grassy mound made of earth from sacred hula mounds all across Hawaii. We were aware of all who had danced before us down through the ages. In that moment, we were the bearers of an ancient and honored culture carrying its truths, holiness, and happiness to people sprawled on mats who may have been snacking on sushi and fried chicken but who had come to be immersed for the day in Hawaiian Hawaii.
Hawaii may be the 50th state of the United States and heir to all its anxieties and prosperity, but the rhythms of the old culture permeate every aspect of life in Hawaiian Islands today. The spirit is manifest in the way diverse people from every point of the compass live together harmoniously under the umbrella of “aloha”. To see a dancer swaying effortlessly like a palm tree, moving like a bird in motion is to see the result of years of effort in learning not only the choreography but, most importantly, the old language and ways, observing nature, and molding oneself humbling in the pattern of the ancestors.
The fact that the Hawaiian culture survived at all is a miracle. In the years following contact with the outside world, 90 percent of the Hawaiian people died of introduced diseases to which they, living so long in isolation, had acquired no immunities. It is a testimony to its endurance, resilience, and beauty that it reigns today as the dominate culture in the islands.
Tourism has helped by providing opportunities for musicians, hula dancers, and cultural practitioners to earn a living doing what they love best. Resort managers have discovered that without the Hawaiian culture, their guests feel cheated, as if they had gone to Disneyland and found that Mickey and Donald had retired.
Even megaresorts—such as Mau’s Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa with its millions in art, European spa, and nine swimming pools, including one with a fake beach a few feet from the real thing—get in on the act. On a pillow in every guest room is a little note, E moe malie me ka Luhaupua I lawe mai kakahi mele O Hawaii’I nei. It means, “Rest peacefully as a distant breeze carries a song of old Hawai’i.”
Visitors first encounter the culture in the extraordinary friendliness of the people and their traditional hospitality, welcoming the stranger as a gift from God. When I entertain visting friends, the first thing I do is check the newspaper and log on to HYPERLINK "http://www.gohawaii.com" www.gohawaii.com. The Hawaiian calendar is crammed with hundreds of festivals and events that are staged primarily for islanders, but everyone is invited.
Maui
Islands have finite resources and the ancient Hawaiians were master environmentalists long before it was popular. Land was divided into ahupua’a (land divisions running from the mountain-tops to the sea) affording each ohana (extended family) every elevation for raising crops plus access to the ocean.
I hiked into Kahakuloa Valley, privately owned and one of the last functioning ahupua’a, with Maui Eco-Adventures. We wondered beside streams and across taro lo’i. We gathered for lunch, and people told their stories of the old days and how the water was regulated. Nobody swam or bathed above the place where drinking water was drawn. We were seduced into the serenity of green yesterdays.
Clifford Nae’ole, cultural advisor to The Ritz Carlton Kapalua, has launched some darin programs, such as a free twice-a-week showing of the documentary And Then There Were None, the poignant story of the Hawaiian race. A spirited discussion often follows the film. Every Sunday, the hotel’s theater presents The Legend of Kaulula’au, a well-reviewed one-man play written by my niece, Kealiiwahine Hokoana, who happens to be a brilliant young screen writer. It’s about a mischievous royal child who confronted the demons of Lana’I and became the chief of Maui. Hawaiian culture is always the centerpiece of the Kapalua Celebration of the Arts held every Easter weekend.
The Ka’anapali Beach Hotel pioneered sharing Hawaiian values with guests via free daily hula and music performances, hula lessons, and native art fairs, all open to the public.
The closest a tourist will come to a real down-home luau is the Old Lahaina Luau staged on the beach at Lahaina. We sat semicircle beside the sea under the stars and dined on traditional foods—kalua pig cooked in an imu (earth oven), haupia (coconut pudding), purple sweet potatoes, and poi, the butt of all tourism jokes. Here, however, they grow their own taro and mash their own poi for all to sample. It has a clean, nutty taste unlike the usual bland paste at commercial luaus. Those who still don’t like it can fill up on steak, salad, and a full buffet of contemporary treats.
Unlike most luaus, the show here is Hawaiian rather than Polynesian. The only exceptions are Tahitian dances because Tahitian colonizers became the Hawaiian people. Besides, their dances are fun and the authentic headdresses out-Vegas the Strip.
Hula is taken seriously. Ka ‘Aha Hula “o Halauaola, a world conference on the dance, is an example of one of the many cultural events on the Maui calendar. It opens with ancient chants and ceremonies (July 24) at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center in Kahului.
Because the canoe is the central artifact in Hawaiian culture, Maui celebrates it with 15 days in May with the International Festival of Canoes when master carvers from across the Pacific come to create outrigger canoes, surf-boards, and drums. Music, parades, cultural arts lessons, and a traditional canoe launching take place at Kamehameha Iki Beach Park (May 28).
Every first weekend of the year, He U’I Cultural Arts Festivals happen beneath the banyan tree in Lahaina. Hawaiian artists also set up and sell and share cultural arts and crafts...(article continues but is not reprinted here)
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