The Hawaiian in me...

Sunday, October 2, 2005. This was the last day in the month long schedule of the World Festival of Sacred Music. It's an organization that explores the music influences of other cultures and ethnicities. On this day, Sunday, the representing groups were Brazilian, African, Italian, Chumash and Hawaiian.

My halau, Hula Keali'i O Nalani, was invited by, Hula Halau `o Lilinoe ame
Na Pua Me Kealoha, to participate with them in this World Festival of Sacred Music. I had been attending practice on Tuesday nights, and one night in particular, my kumu informed us that we were going to be participating in this festival with Auntie Sissy's halau (Auntie Sissy Kaio is the kumu of the other halau). I had not been sure of what this festival was really about nor had I the inclination to look up that info on the internet. I kind of just brushed it off. One of my 'alaka'i in the halau, Leiali'i, invited me to participate in this festival, and sure enough the next day I was at Auntie Sissy's halau learning new material, three mele all together.

From the start, the differences in halaus were noticeable. For starters, the warm ups were long and arduous compared to my own halau's warmups. Their timing and stances were quite different too. Beyond that, they were quite friendly, making sure that we all felt welcome. One practice morning I was fortunate enough to arrive early with a couple of other haumana, and saw Uncle Lincoln, Auntie Sissy's husband, sweeping the front of the halau. I got the opportunity to sit and talk story with him, it was a nice time.

The day of the event came, were to meet at Santa Monica Beach Park at noon, so we could do a run down of our events and coordinate with the event planners. After heading down to the beach head we gathered and found our spot, and we practiced. I was getting nervous and excited at the same time. After which we practiced our procession over to a canoe called Moomat ahiko. See here's a side story, and unfortunately I will not get this right. But part of this event was a launching of a Chumash canoe which had significant historical and spiritual meaning to the nation of Chumash. And part of this ceremony was a connection of Hawaiians and Chumash.

So the event started promptly at 3pm. Unfortunately for a few kane and myself we were a little late getting to our places. We ran to our spots and saw that our halaus had already pule-ed (prayed) and that now we were under kapu, no talking. I placed my pareo down and sat on my knees, took a deep breath, brought my head up and opened my eyes. To my right was my kumu, kumu Kaio, kumu Moku and others. In front of me was a breath taking scene. I saw the sun hovering above the ocean casting a warm glowing light, the wind gently blowing a cool breath of ocean air. In the glow of light reflecting off of the ocean stood a kahuna from Auntie Sissy's halau. It was an amazing sight to be hold. That moment in time seemed to stand still for me. It was overwhelming to take in, I started to tear. Moku came over and spoke to us in Hawaiian, [men stand and walk down to be blessed]. The front line of the line up were all kane, 8 of us. We all walked down in unison, and stopped at the edge water, and waited to be blessed. This whole time, my eyes welled up with tears. "Why am i so emotional today, what's wrong with me?" I asked myself. I just continued to tear. The kahuna came down the line of kane blessing each one. She came to me and paused a brief while. I took a deep breath and began sobbing. She continued down the line with the other kane. I was so happy inside, such an indescribable feeling. When we were finished being blessed, we walked back up the beach to return to our seats. The blessings continued and I was still trying to make sense of al this sensory overload. I mean to me it felt like it stirred something. Here I am taking part in a ceremony that for some doesn't' really mean anything. And at the same time, I look around me and see people dressed in attire of early Hawaiians, may not be exactly what they wore, but it's not far off. This is what it means to be Hawaiian. This is a culture steeped in tradition and fond of their environment. A group of which I belong. This is the lineage of which I am born into. Not just to adorn the clothing or to utter the words of Hawaiians, but to see hear and feel and take part in some thing so traditional. I am playing a part in something so grand.
Once the Pikai was finished, the 'awa ceremony began. 'Awa is an herbal relaxant that when mixed with water is consumed and calms the body. The kahuna prepared the 'awa and Moku shared it with us. The first three lines who were dancing were able to take part of the 'awa ceremony. Once done, I looked before me and saw the crowed being asked to move back. We then were asked to stand. We walked down the beach a ways, and stood fast. Pele recited the "Kumu Lipo", and when he finished the rest of us began... "'O ka walewale ho'okumu honua ia, 'O ke kumu o ka lipo i lipo ai, 'o ke kumu o ka po i po ai..." and then boom, we were dancing. There were three meles. The first one was written and choreographed specifically for this day. It spoke of the birth of man and woman, and birth of the Moomat athiko, the canoe from the Chumash nation. I felt i was doing great. Then when finished, we began the second mele, Ulei Pahu. This an old mele, it predicted the coming of the haole, foreigner. From what I reemmber, this mele was written a hundred years before Captain Cook arrived in Hawaii. It's kind of weird to think that an old sage Hawaiian predicted the coming of ka haole. When we began this mele, I felt something come over me, like the rest of the world disappeared and everything kind of tuned out. All I heard was the beat of the pahu. I felt like i was zoning in the hula, nothing else mattered at that moment, just the hula. Then we began the third mele, Mele Ho'oulu, again, I was zoning, just me and the dance, one with the dance. The mele begins a little slow and eventually goes faster. By the end you had to keep giving of your body to give to the hula. Everything just zipped by and it was over so quickly. After a briefly catching my breath, we stood at attention, and I looked over at Uhane, and he began "I ku mau mau", a chant that was used to bring people to unison in old time hawaii, when they would move large trees down from mountains to the beach to be carved into canoes:

"I ku mau mau
I ku wa
I ku mau mau
I ku huluhulu
I ka lanawao
I ku wa
I ku lanawao
I ku wa
I ku wa huki
I ku wa ko
I ku wa a mau
E mau ka e ulu
E huki e
Kulia!"

'Uhane was to do it 3 times then myself and then Pele. I listened as 'Uhane finished, then I started in, and at the same time I looked over to Moku, and he gestured to go ahead and move forward. I moved through our dancers and kept reciting and they, the dances, recited in unison. I got to the back side of the dancers, turned around to face them and marched backward. The dancers followed. I got the third time through, and looked at Moku, and he gestured to keep going, so I did. This whole time I felt invigorated to be doing this. I kept putting more force into 'I ku mau mau', like I was leading everyone, and just kept pushing. I was pushing so hard that I could feel my diaphram start to shake. I saw spittle fly out of my mouth but i didn't care. We eventually got to our destination, all of the groups formed a semi-circle around the canoe and we paused, but we did not stop chanting. I however was running out of energy and looked Moku, and gestured with my hand across my throat. He nodded and pointed to another haumana, and she began. The Kane moved forward from the group and gathered next to the canoe. The men were to help the men from the Chumash to help lift the canoe over our heads and carry it down to the water. We waited a brief while as their was a procession coming down a walk way. Once we saw sight of the oars being carried end to end, we hoisted that wooden mass above our shoulders and marched to the water. It was a spectacle. I heard conch shells being blown as we moved down the sand. Again I realized i was a part of something grand.
We reached the water, slowly walked a ways out and set the canoe down. The men held it fast as the waves were tossing it about. The Chumash men started adding sand bags to the canoe as ballasts. I ran back to help make a line to get the sand bags from the shore to the canoe, once that was done, i hurried back to help keep the canoe in place. It took a while there, the surf was rising and I was chest deep in water. Finally the offerings were coming from the groups. Each group was to make an offering and add it to the canoe as their share of offerings. Once all the men were in and the offerings were on board, they were off... They paddled into the waves and went quite a distance out.
After launching the canoe, i headed back to our group. I looked on and saw that an enormous crowd had formed and in the center a large circle, and in the circle was my group. A couple of the kane stood outside the circle for a while. Then we decided to make our way in, and at the same time, the crowd began to separate and our group were on their feet. I realized that we are doing our dances again. The men quickly returned to our places in line and got ready. Unfortunately for me though, I had grown tired, cold and hungry. But that didn't matter. Pele again recited the kumu lipo, and we once again began. Though my euphoria was not as intense as the first time, never the less it was still there. Again we went through the mele and it seem to go by ever so quickly. Once we were done, we heard a faint clapping, and other banging sounds. In front of us where the crowd seemed to gather closely, they began to part. And from the beach came the Chumash people. And the song, "moomat ahiko" began being sung. And I realized at this point this ceremony was a more than it seemed. The "elders" of this day greeted each other the old way, forehead to forehead. There was a lot of crying going on. I looked about and saw some of the women of the Chumash tribe with their hands held high and their eyes closed. They seemed to be taking in the energy that was eminating from us. It was getting cold, but from the center of this meeting place there was a wash of warm air being generated. It was like a warm soft blanket had settled over us and the security of tradition and knowledge seemed to spring up like an old familar face. It was comforting. I was moved to tears once again. I felt I belonged there amongst my fellow companions. I felt as though life has yet again unfolded it's arms to reveal to me and us, that this is where we were supposed to be in this point and time. I wish that I could describe the energy that was coming from that place. It was intense warm and moving. Once the singing and clapping died down, the Chumash presented us with an oar from their canoe. It probably measured 10' long end to end. We graciously accepted it proudly displayed it proudly. After accepting it one of the kahunas tapped me on the shoulder and asked that I grab my kumu's staff so that he may hold the oar. After which I quickly asked for my kumu's staff and he took the oar and too proudly displayed it. For a bit there, we all stood fast as proud Hawaiians. I looke about and saw the eyes of the public gaze in wonder. Wonder of what is going on, and wonder of the energy that was being produced from this event. And wonder of this display of tradition. I couldn't help but think to myself, how wonderful we all must feel that two compeletely different indigenous people have come together as one and share yet a common bond. Not too long after we slowly exited to the side to return back to the picnic grounds where our things were. My kumu handed me the oar and i returned his staff. Before making our way back to the picnic tables, we gathered on last time, we chanted "Pupu Weuweu e Laka e", "Laka is now an altar of greenery", which freed us from the kapu of high ceremony. We were now regular people again, no longer dancers under kapu... I walked back with 'Uhane and his fiancee Nina, and we just talked about what just happened.

After returning to the picnic grounds, we got changed back to regular clothes. The temperature was dropping, partly due the onset of the evening and as well we were in the sun all day so our skin was hot. After everyone changed, it was time to eat. Makuas and keikis first then the dancers. Shoot, instead of eating, I called out Uncle Lincoln because he too had a fluke, a ukulele. He brought his out, and so did I. i told him that I don't play well, and he assured me that it didn't matter, just follow along. Sure enough he and I were playing and Ron another dancer from their halau was singing. This was kanikapila! People were eating, talking story, and playing music. I loved it! The next thing you know more people were in on the singing, and playing. I handed over my Uke to Ron and so he and Uncle were playing. I grabbed an Ipu and started playing that. I couldn't believe the fun we were having! After which I ran and grabbed some food. And what a spread we had. Poi, poke, kalua pig, rice, etc etc etc... Holy crap! Everyone was so nice! We were probably there for about an hour or so and then we all packed up and headed out. Before leaving I went over to thank Auntie Sissy for allowing us to participate in this event. And she was very acknowledging of the fact that we wanted to be a part of this. She went on to add that we need to h ave more functions like this, and pot luck gatherings as well.


In the end, i honestly cannot put into words the enlightening feeling and warmth and fun I had that day....

To see more pics of the event you can visit my gallery and the gallery of the festival's photographer here:

World Festival of Sacred Music Gallery

WFSM Honoring the sea