 |
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 50th 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
