Hālau I Ka Leo Ola O Nā Mamo
Our hālau, Hālau I Ka Leo Ola O Nā Mamo was established in 2009. The hālau was started in order to meet the demand of students attending Ke Kula ʻo Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu, a Hawaiian medium school in Keaʻau, Hawaiʻi. From inception the hālau has beeen dedicated to preserving traditional Hawaiian dances by teaching the dances, as learned by the both of us, Kekoa and Pelehonuamea Harman from our kumu, Kimo Keaulana, through the medium of Hawaiian. This additional context to learn a traditional Hawaiian practice outside of the normal hours of school instruction has been a benefit to our students to grow in other areas using our mother tongue. Since first starting out that first year with approximately 15 students, we have seen the hālau consistently grow each year, and now have a total of approximately 74 students for this 2015-2016 year.
A project such as this would allow a select group of students (10 students) to further their traditional practice knowledge and to grow into leadership roles in the hālau. We are now at the point after six years of having the hālau to demand greater leadership from our students. We both believe that they are prepared for this next level of learning which will someday benefit many others within the hālau and the Native Hawaiian community-at-large.
Within this grant period, we recognized considerable growth in our students as they learned these traditional dances from these recognized hula elders. As teachers of these students, we also learned much about ourselves as teachers and how traditional know ledge should be transmitted to the younger generation. The moʻ olelo, or stories and anecdotes along with the movements shared with the students from each hula master created a rich context and often “fun” dialogue for the students to learn. The other result achieved that was particularly rewarding was the presentation of these dances in front of all of these hula masters who taught the dances. There was a lot of preparation that went into this.
Our hālau (traditional Hawaiian dance school), Hālau I Ka Leo Ola O Nā Mamo (The hula school of the living language of the descendants), aims to build capacity by pairing youth students in hālau with traditional cultural dance experts in the community in order to preserve traditional ways of knowing. The four dance experts have specialized knowledge in traditional dances. The two instructors of the hālau along with a group of 10 chosen students will learn these dances, conduct interviews with these experts, and then present these dances for the public in a hula expo at the College of Hawaiian Language, Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani during the week of the world festival of hula, the Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo, Hawaiʻi.
