THE HISTORY OF HULA

The Hawaiians inherited from the Polynesians their complex cosmology or world view. Most archaeologists agree that migration from Polynesia to Hawaii was in two parts, probably from the Marquesas in the sixth century A.D. and from the Society Islands eight hundred years later. Thus, fleet wooden double-hulled canoes made the volcanic islands of Hawaii a northern extension of the rich Polynesian cultural area.

Like the ancient Greeks, the Polynesians had a pantheon of gods and a body of myths describing the supernaturals, usually human, often divine.

Hula was part of the Polynesian culture. Stories about the gods, and historical events were passed on in the oral tradition by oli (chants) and mele (songs accompanied by music and dance). The apo (male or female chanter) was able to recall and repeat chants for hours without error. In this way, sacred lore passed from one generation to the next. Oli and mele were similar to modern poetry; they utilized interior rhyme, hidden meanings, multi-leveled symbolism, unifying repetition, anger, embarrassment, joy, grief, honor – and humor.

Dances were an integral part of the culture when Captain Cook landed on the Island of Kaua`i in 1778, discovering for the Euro-American Civilization this last outpost of Oceanic Islands. With the arrival of Western ideals in the islands, the dynasties of the Hawaiian kings alternately cherished or crippled the indigenous culture. Western ideals flourished alongside the people’s growing impatience with kapu and restrictions of the ancient religion.

Forty years after Cook’s appearance, the ruling Queen Ka’ahumanu became a Christian, and in a move leading to the end of formalized Hawaiian rituals, ordered all heiau (sacred temple sites) and images destroyed. The significance of the dances had gradually been lost to general understanding.

Hawaiian hula went underground. Dancers glorified the gods and entertained friends and families in remote sections of the islands. Kumu (teacher) instructed and haumana (student) performed, but in secret. Once suppressed, hula became a titillating idea that the more enterprising white entrepreneurs exploited. They presented exotic dances surreptitiously for seamen’s amusement. The Hawaiians were delighted to take part, since to them all hula had equal importance. It was at this point that hula began to accumulate its forlorn reputation of exotic and/or bawdy entertainment for sailors and tourists.

In 1830’s, King Kamehameha III issued an edict guaranteeing religious freedom and tried to re-establish the centrality of hula in Hawaiian culture. At this time the missionaries recognized that Hawaiian dance could not be quelled, but countered with the condition that dancers wear the Victorian-style high necked, long sleeved gown (holoku) that they had substituted for the pa’u.

The personage of King Kalakaua, however, elected to a puppet leadership in 1874, was a temporary light. He healed his culture and raised hula to a national symbol. Fun loving, politically astute, he enjoyed celebrations, festivals and world traveling, earning himself the title of “The Merrie Monarch”. He linked waltzes and classical music with traditional hula at great royal celebrations. What appeared as frivolity was a wisdom that forged a permanent place for hula in Hawaii's future culture.

King Kalakaua said: ”The hula is the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people.”

After Kalakaua’s death and without the nurturing of Hawaiian royalty, hula resumed its former character of superficial entertainment in an enigmatic culture. Tourism promoted hula as a national symbol, as a product drained of meaning and focused on vacuous words, music and movement.