This one is ready for the History Channel

BernicePauahiBishop31
Last heir to Kamehameha The Great.  Founder of Kamehameha Schools

King David Kalakaua The Merrie Monarch

Queen Lilioukalani The Last Monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom

The Merrie Monarch Hula Festival in Hilo

Gabby Pahinui Legendary singer and slack key guitarist

Dennis Pavao Hawaiian music legend

Ancient Polynesian double hulled sailing canoe

Hokulea Flagship of the Polynesian Voyaging Society

Eddie Aikau catching big waves on North Shore of Oahu

An older Eddie Aikau as an original member of the Hokulea

Aloha All,

My husband Paul, a lover of history has put together this blog entry for me. What a well done piece about the special and somewhat little known history of the Hawaiian culture. Brought a tear to my eye when I first read it. Please enjoy the entry below as I did.

A Hawaii I didn’t know existed

When we were deciding whether or not to move to Hawaii, I did a lot of research.  One thing that bothered me was parts of Hawaiian history where foreigners come to Hawaii and exploit it.  I didn’t want to do that.  I was very glad to get a job with Kamehameha Schools because I felt like being part of a mission based organization would enable me to help make Hawaii better.

I think if someone is going to move to Hawaii they have a duty to learn as much as they can about Hawaiian culture.  I’ve spent a lot of time reading and learning about Hawaiian culture.   If we decide to come home I want to leave Hawaii better than when we arrived.  I’ve been working for a great educational organization and that is great but I’ve been trying to think about what else I can do and I came up with this.  I decide to write a blog post for Lisa’s terrific blog about just a handful of things that I think make Hawaii so much more than everyone on the mainland thinks of it.  If even just a couple people read this and keep it in mind next time they come here then hopefully that will go a long way to keeping Hawaii a special place.

Hawaii isn’t just kitschy touristy sun baked stuff.  It isn’t just fun music or colorful shirts.  It is nice to come to a place on vacation that feels so relaxing and beautiful and a bit whimsical.  So this post is going to outline some of things that really gave me a new appreciation for Hawaii.  These are just a few of the things I have learned about that make Hawaii much more serious and substantial to me than just Aloha shirts and puka shells.

The Hawaiian Renaissance

When I started to read more about the history and culture of Hawaii, I came across this phrase.  I was surprised to hear this phrase for the first time because I didn’t know there was such thing.  Then I was even more surprised to discover that there were 2 renaissance periods.  Without getting too boring, I will try to briefly summarize both.

First Renaissance Period

For nearly 100 years, Hawaii was an independent nation.  That is not to say that there wasn’t a lot of pressure to influence or completely take over by super powers that recognized the value of the islands.  The British and American had exerted a lot of influence over the islands from very early on.  No one was more influential than American missionaries.  The missionaries had a great deal of positive influences including the introduction of the Hawaiian alphabet which helped to make Hawaii one of the most literate nations at the time.  The missionaries were much more modest than the Hawaiians and they had convinced the chiefs to outlaw Hula as it was considered too immodest.

After several years of this type of influence, it was King David Kalakaua (1874) who started to take steps to perpetuate nationalism and develop a unique sense of what it means to be Hawaiian and not try to just be like the Americans or British.  He did things like bring back Hula, traditional chants, ritual and change the national anthem from a typical Christian hymn to Hawaii Pono’i.  His people loved him for this and became known as the Merry Monarch.  To this day there is a huge Hula competition on the Big Island called the Merrie Monarch Festival.

Second Renaissance Period

The time of King David Kalakaua was a high point in Hawaiian history.  Unfortunately things would get much worse for the nation.  It was Kalakaua’s sister (Queen Lilioukalani) who would go on to lose the nation in a coup d'etat led by American businessmen.  Soon after this Hawaii was completely annexed by the US as a territory and eventually became the 50^th state of the union.  With the loss of their ancestral lands, native Hawaiians became second class citizen and lost their proud national identity.  The Hawaiian language was almost lost during this time.  Kapuna (elders) talk about how they were punished at school if they spoke Hawaiian.

Ironically, it was the cultural movements of the late 60’s and 70’s in the mainland US that inspired Hawaii’s youth to take a stand and try to get back of their proud national identity.  Much like the counter culture of this US at the time, they did this through the use of true Hawaiian music from artists such as Gabby Pahinui and Dennis Pavao.   Hawaiians began to take a stand in land rights fights against developers to try to preserve some of their precious land for traditional practices like growing of Taro.

Hawaiians began to find more things to be proud of and developed a renewed sense of standing up for their rights and not letting their culture die.

There is no more important physical object that symbolizes the Hawaiian renaissance than the Hokulea.

The Hokulea (Star of Gladness) is a double hulled Polynesian sailing canoe that was built in the 70’s in an effort to reignite pride in the Hawaiian people.  Anthropologists have long debated how Hawaii came to be populated.  It was proven that the Hawaiian’s (or Kanaka as they called themselves) came from the deep south pacific islands of Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands but it was also thought that they found Hawaii by accident and that without modern navigational technology there is no way they could have purposefully found the Hawaiian Islands in the vast pacific ocean.

The Polynesian Voyaging Society wanted to disprove this theory  by building a replica of the types of sailing crafts from that period and sailing it back to Tahiti using only the stars and the techniques that were passed down from the original inhabitants.

Tragedy struck the Hokulea when, in their first attempt to sail to Tahiti, they encountered a huge storm that swamped the canoe just off the coast of Oahu.  With no way to contact the Coast Guard and crew members getting dangerously close to succumbing to the elements it was a big wave surf legend named Eddie Aikau who attempted to paddle back to Oahu on his surf board to get help.  He was never seen again. 

Eddie Aikau was the archetype of a true Hawaiian waterman.  He was a champion big wave surfer on the legendary North Shore and also Lifeguard of the year at Waimea Bay Beach Park where he is rumored to have saved hundreds of lives.  To this day there is a saying in Hawaii, 'Eddie would go'.  The accomplishments and courage of Eddie helped to add to the pride of the Hawaiian people during this second renaissance period.  The Hokulea eventually succeeded in sailing to Tahiti several times and is still going strong.  They are about to embark on a world-wide tour.

So the next time you are in Hawaii and check into your hotel or go to a Luau, keep in mind that the Hawaiian culture and people are much more than they seem on the surface.  They are a proud capable nation that deserves our respect.  Most important, have a great vacation and try to leave Hawaii better then how you found it.

Mahalo nui Paul for writing this entry. So well done. 

Much aloha to you all,

Lisa