The word, hula,conjures up many associations. As a visitor to the Islands, hula may represent a beautiful maiden with flowers in her hair, swaying to the sound of steel guitars and ukuleles. As residents, we may envision the Merry Monarch competition as a symbol of the hula, or even the May Day programs of our youth. To the Hawaiian people, hula means something much deeper than a form of entertainment or a competition to gain reputation. It is their culture and ancient ways expressed in a dance that comes from within, from the center, the piko.

The piko, which means center or orifice, has three representations. The first piko on top of the head represents the past (a passage to ancestors, genealogy). Hawaiians believe that striking a child on the head would be intentionally showing disrespect to their ancestors and so is forbidden. The second piko is the navel, where life is sustained through the mother's body (life force from where all energy comes). It represents the present. The third piko is the mai (vagina) representing the future generations of family and culture.

We will journey into the past, present, and future of ka hula piko, and come to understand the significance of "Moloka'i ka hula piko," Moloka'i the center of the dance.

The early Hawaiians saw the land as a living person with feelings, emotions and a spirit. The natural elements- rain, wind, rainbows, sea spray, clouds-were often interpreted as the feelings and emotions of the land. Like a mother to her children, the land takes care of her people. As Hawaiian ancestors would say, "We eat, we sleep, we plant, and we die on the lap of our mother."

At the time when migration was taking place to and from the Hawaiian Islands, a woman named La'ila'i settled with her family on the island of Moloka'i. The family made their home at the top of Maunaloa in the district of Ka'ana. They brought with them a special form of art no one had ever seen before, the art of hula.

The La'ila'i family performed and taught the hula at Ka'ana and soon became renowned throughout the island chain. People would come to see the family perform, but were never allowed to learn the dance. The La'ila'i family kept the teaching of the hula guarded within their family lineage for five generations.

Nearly a century after the La'ila'i family came to Hawai'i, Kapo'ulakina'u, the granddaughter of La'ila'i, agreed to teach the outsiders only if they came to Ka'ana for training and obeyed her strict kapu and laws. She was hula master at the time. However, Kapo'ulakina'u soon found herself unable to meet the great demand. She sought the help of her youngest sister Kewelani, to assist her.

Kewelani soon mastered the art of hula and became the most beautiful dancer within her performing family. Upon her uniki (dance graduation), Kapo'ulakina'u gave her the three names by which she would teach the hula. The first was Ulunui, the second was Laea, and the third was Laka. These names would give her the mana and authority to teach the hula.

In the district of Ka'ana there is a hill called Pu'unana. It is from a stone platform there at Pu'unana that Laka taught the hula. A passage taken from a nine hundred twenty eight line chant speaks of Laka turning toward the West and seeing the visible shadow of Ni'ihau each day at sunset:

Laka turned toward the West

Faded was Ni'ihau in the sea spray

A great desire swelled within

Oh Laka, hula teacher of Ka`ana.

The overwhelming desire to travel there finally made Laka leave Moloka'i against the wishes of Kapoulakina'u and the La'ila'i family. Laka went to Ni'ihau where she spent many years teaching the hula style of Hula Panu. From Ni'ihau she could see Wai'ale'ale on the Island of Kaua'i and she traveled there to settle in Ha'ena. After many years and when all her students in Ha'ena had become Kumu, she traveled on to O'ahu, Maui, back tracked to Lana'i, and then to Puna on the Big Island. Puna was her favorite district to teach the hula, and she established many schools of teaching. One of her first students there was a woman named Hopoe, a beloved friend of M'iakaikapoliopele, and it was Hopoe who taught M'iaka to dance the hula.

In time, the art of hula became established throughout the Hawaiian Islands, something Kapo'ulakina'u and the La'ila'i family could have never foreseen. Kapo'ulakina'u soon grew jealous of Laka and left hula completely, turning to sorcery trying to distort and disrupt Laka's teaching. She later turned herself into a stone that sits today in Pu'u Nana and is called the "Kapo'ulakina'u Stone." Ancient dancers believed that while performing, if a motion was forgotten and a mistake made, it was Kapo'ulakina'u who had made them forget.

In her old age, Laka returned to the lush lehua forests of Ka`ana Maunaloa on the island of Moloka'i where she later died. Her remains were secretly buried somewhere under the hill of Pu'u Nana. While generations eventually forgot Laka's physical existence, the people lifted her and deified her memory to that of a goddess.

Three main halau flourished on the island of Moloka'i, one at Ho'olehua, a second at Pu'u Hoku, and the third on Maunaloa. The halau on Maunaloa was called Halau Ho'okuhi'iu'iu, so named because the halau gathered water in a cave that made a dripping sound ('iu'iu).

Life in a halau started for boys between the age of three and sixteen. It was believed that during that age the bones were still soft enough for the body to move properly. There they would remain for fourteen years without any contact from family members or people outside the halau. The kumu did everything for them, and prepared students for uniki.

Upon reaching uniki, a great ceremony took place. The halau would gather at night on the top of Maunaloa and make their way down to the ocean. At the beach two rows of kukui nut torches were lined up, and one by one the dancers entered the ocean to be cleansed. They walked backward out of the water; if one fell, it meant he wasn't ready for uniki, or if one fell a certain way, he would have to leave the halau.

After returning to the halau they bathed themselves in oil. They prepared black pig, awa, and red fish for an offering to Laka. If a rainbow appeared over the halau, it meant everyone was ready for uniki. A celebration followed and the halau would perform for their families. After uniki each student was now able to teach the hula (become a Kumu) or get married which meant leaving the hula completely.

Before the halau members can enter her home, it is necessary to chant an oli komo asking permission to enter. A reply is chanted and entry is granted. At the beginning of practice a prayer is chanted by all to bless the halau from corner to corner, top to bottom, mountain to ocean, and for protection from their aumakuas. Spirituality is something Noelani strives for at every practice. She often tells her students, "If it is not pono, it is not hula." To achieve pono, discipline is stressed. The halau practices verses over and over. Two lines of dancers execute movements as the kumu calls out commands in Hawaiian, an ancient way of teaching hula. It is easy to forget the acculturation that has taken place in the Hawaiian Islands and imagine that they are dancing at Pu'u Nana. The hula pahu they are practicing is a chant "A Ko'olau Au," that tells the story of Hi'iaka on her journey to Kaua'i to bring the handsome prince, Lohiau, to Pele. The region is the windward, Ko'olau, side of 0'ahu. The chant depicts obstacles in nature Hi'iaka encounters on her journey to Kaua'i. The chant is translated by Kawena Pukui only up to line six, the only lines a halau can perform:

From Ko'olau, I watch the rain

The rain that pours on the earth

The rain passes by in columns,

It rumbles as it falls in the mountains,

The rain rises like the waves of the sea,

Lo, the rain comes, it comes.

The kumu hula is not teaching her students this chant for a performance. It will be danced in a ritual on the island of Moloka'i to pay tribute and to honor the source of hula, Laka. It is in appreciation for all that Laka has given them. It is Hawaiian belief that when taking from the spirit one must "ho'okupu," give back to the spirit.

A part of giving to Laka includes ancient hula plants to be laid at Pu'u Nana as an offering. Sacred hula plants were a significant part of the ancient kuahu (hula altar) made for Laka. A piece of white lama wood symbolizing Laka's purity would be set on the altar. Adorned with woven leis and ferns, the kuahu reflects the unity within the Mau. Noelani's kuahu sits on the east end of her property in Kaneohe.

After their ho'okupu, they will be one of many honored halau performing at the Moloka'i Ka Hula Piko, a celebrated yearly event honoring the birth of hula.

To the Hawaiians the mo'o were a symbol of spirituality and good fortune. The central design depicts this spiritual continuity by the lizards arranged in a circle. The triangular design depicts a Hawaiian value called lokahi, that is symbolic of a balance between man, nature, and God. The petroglyphs within the triangle depict a man and woman in dance. In the uppermost part of the triangle is a rising sun with a dot in the center symbolizing the piko of the hula.

Beneath the circle at the bottom of the design, is a motif depicting water. At the top, the row of triangles depicts fire. In the real world, water and fire are the two elements that cannot be mixed, but the spiritual essence of these elements mix in the hula. The ancient kumu hula of Moloka'i stressed to their students that they should dance with the fluidity of water and with the spark of fire.

The middle design, rows of diamonds, was called by the Hawaiians na maka ke akua, or "eyes of the gods." Eyes are symbolic of the past, because their ancestors look upon them and guide them in this life. Eyes also represent the living, as they look back upon the paths of their ancestors for inspiration and guidance. Above the na maka ke akua design are ferns representing the greenery worn by the dancers, and below are the half-circle-point motif representing the rays of the sun rising in the East. To the early Hawaiians, the rising sun was symbolic of constant renewal and rebirth in the hula (John Kaimikaua, 1991).

It is for this spiritual journey to Moloka'i that the halau has been practicing very hard. To ensure the pono of their hula, they will dance their ritual chant at the top of the Ko'olau mountain range. As they dance they will focus on their na'au, and the spirit they will give back to Laka at Pu'u Nana.

As the ancient hula kapu are lifted with the death of the old Olohipi'o Umoumou (keepers of the people), and the spirit of hula lives on, the ancient prophecy comes true. The elders saw times of suffering, and believed that only when the people became humble again would the restoration of everything lost be returned. There is an ancient saying of Moloka'i:

A Kumu o Moloka'i,

It began on Moloka'i,

and it shall end on Moloka'i.

The hula halau of today and the future are proof that the prophecy has come full circle. The Hawaiian people have survived the assimilation of their culture, and through Ka Hula Piko they will remain.

References

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