Authentic Hawaiian Experiences
From our May 20, 2022 post:
“While you will likely see a Hawaiian hula dance at just about any luau you attend, not every dance is a Hula. For example, the image above is not a Hawaiian hula, but a traditional Tahitian Otea dance.
At Gay Bowl XXII, you will enjoy Kahiko Hula at the opening party and Polynesian dance at the closing party.”
From Gay Bowl sponsor Hawaii Tourism Authority:
Something powerful happens when visitors to Hawaii have authentic experiences.
The Hawaiian Islands have been and remain a dream locale for travelers to visit and for destination managers to promote. But what about the people who live here, the Native Hawaiians who created the culture that makes this place unique and the local residents who call these islands home?
It is important to recognize two challenges affecting them that have emerged over the course of tourism’s growth.
Accurate Representation
From a Native Hawaiian perspective, advertising representations of Hawai‘i have room for improvement.
Native Hawaiian culture should be shared in a way that accurately reflects its dignity, sacredness and centrality to our ways of life.
Managed Tourism
The Hawaiian Islands are leading the way in enlarging our efforts from tourism promotion to tourism education, to ensure that the negative impacts of tourism are minimized and the benefits are shared as broadly as possible. Tourism must be about making life better for our residents and our communities first and foremost.
Culture is not entertainment.
It’s easy to distort a cultural practice. For example hula, like many indigenous dance forms, is a natural draw for visitors who want to experience the art and culture of a place. But the sacredness of the dance can become lost while more entertaining elements—the costume, the athleticism—are over-emphasized.
The misrepresentation of hula from elsewhere in Polynesia—such as Tahiti, Fiji or Samoa—as Hawaiian hula is a common problem that has plagued visitor industry portrayals of Hawaii, to the extent that many visitors don’t know the difference. That result is not just a failure of cultural portrayal - it is destructive to the cultural practice itself and harmful to Native Hawaiian people. Sometimes, the entertainment images of Hawaii establish narrow stereotypes and limited ideas about a culture.
Hula is the traditional dance of Hawaii.
The chants and songs of hula preserve Hawaii’s history and culture. Dances often depict things such as Hawaiian legends, the achievements and deeds of royalty, the beauty of nature, or love. Hula kahiko is often referred to as ancient or traditional hula, and hula auana is often referred to as modern hula.
This distinction, however, incorrectly minimizes the differences between the two and overlooks other important distinctions. Hula kahiko is traditionally performed as part of or as an extension of a ceremony, and is performed to oli (chants) accompanied by percussion instruments.
While many of the oli we hear along with hula kahiko are compositions from generations ago, there are new oli being composed in the style of older ones, and the hula to these contemporary oli are characteristically hula kahiko. Hula auana is less formal hula performed without ceremony.
Around the turn of the 20th century, hula began to evolve from the hula kahiko into this less formal style. In hula auana, dancers often interact more closely with the audience. A story is told with the accompaniment of singing, sometimes in falsetto, and the playing of stringed instruments such as the guitar, bass, steel guitar, and ‘ukulele.
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Funding for Gay Bowl XXII has been provided via a grant by Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) through the Community Enrichment Program (CEP). For more info about HTA and CEP, click here.
