Hawaiian Hula, Patrick Makauakane, and Na Leie Hulu i ka Weiku

Abstract

Following a description of the opening of one of Patrick Makuakane’s most memorable choreographies, The Natives Are Restless, through archaeological and linguistic evidence, I trace the history of the Hawaiian people, beginning with their origins as a part of the great Polynesian migration, which began millennia ago, as Polynesians, who were master sailors and navigators left their homeland on the south China shores, and settled numerous islands in the Pacific Ocean from New Zealand, to Easter Island, and ultimately, the Hawaiian Islands. The Polynesians brought not only plants like taro; they also brought and developed cultural concepts such as mana, kapu (taboo), and aloha. Patrick Makuakane, with his unique choreographic voice founded the halau, Na Lei Hulu I ka Weiku, one of San Francisco’s most unique and famous dance companies. I look at the history of hula, a complex dance genre that is made up of music, poetry (mele), and movement, of which mele, the poetry, is the most important and determines the movements of the dancers. Without the poetry in the Hawaiian language, hula does not exist. Contact began in 1788, when Captain James Cook came to the Islands. Hidden in those visits were European diseases like smallpox, and the population of Hawaii, which has been estimated variously as 400,000 to 1 million, had dropped to 135,000 forty-five years later. After looking at pre-contact life, I turn to the missionaries, who, in 1820, brought with them Christianity, arrogance, and greed. The children and grandchildren of the original missionaries were among those who took over the independent Kingdom of Hawaii by force, with the aid and connivance of the American Government and the Marines. Throughout the period until the 1960s, the Americans attempted, unsuccessfully, to ban hula, but in the 1960s, the cultural and political movement known as the Hawaiian Renaissance, using the Hawaiian language and hula, attempted to restore indigenous pride and regain political clout. From the 1920s, hula had become a form of “airport art,” central to the tourist trade, and Hawaiians who had practiced hula throughout the period reintroduced hula as a serious cultural tradition. Patrick Makuakane, an award-winning choreographer, participated in the movement, learning hula in middle school, and performed in the Merrie Monarch hula competition, a major result of the Hawaiian Renaissance. In San Francisco, where he received his formal college education, he founded Na Lei Hulu I ka Weiku, a unique dance company that explores every aspect of hula from ancient (kahiko), to modern (‘auana), to his own experimental hula mua (progressive hula).