Ancient Traditions and the New Hawaii

Contemporary Hawaiians represent the most vivid, accessible resources we have for understanding and illustrating both the neo-traditional and neo-Hawaiian Renaissance of daily life on the islands. The post-1970s era Hawaiians featured in this section are playing vital roles in honoring island heritage and propelling Polynesian music, dance, and culture on to the global stage.

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Song & Dance

Slack Key Guitar

Ever since their introduction to the Hawaiian Islands in the early 1800s, Kī Hō‘alu (Hawaiian slack key guitar) and Kīkā kila (steel guitar) music have been evolving. Through the years, the techniques and repertoires of the early traditional musicians have been passed on via performance, observation, and imitation through successive generations of each musical ‘ohana (family).

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‘Ukulele

The neo-Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance has catapulted the ‘ukulele into a bold mixture of Hawaiian and other musical forms. The work of Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole (a.k.a. Brother Iz), for instance, inspired pop artists such as Bruno Mars, Jason Mraz, Jack Johnson, and Taylor Swift to feature the instrument in their work, bringing the ‘ukulele to a new and appreciative audience of listeners and performers.

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Hula

The hula kahiko, the ancient form of the dance and sometimes referred to simply as “traditional” hula, is performed in traditional costume and accompanied by chant (oli) and traditional percussion instruments such as hollowed gourds (ipu), drums (pahu and the smaller puniu) and bamboo tubes (kaʻekeʻeke). The “modern” hula, the ‘auana, is typically performed in contemporary costume and accompanied by song and Western-influenced musical instruments such as the guitar, the ʻukulele, and the double bass. Hula is a complex art form, and there are many hand motions used to represent the words in a song (mele) or chant (oli). The chants performed during both forms of hula provide an integral narrative embedded with deep emotion. Together, the dance and chants provide a vivid record of Hawaiian culture – legends, traditions, genealogies, and history – that can be preserved and passed down. Today’s hula masters are varied in their approaches, with some reproducing the traditional dances as authentically as possible, and others creating new dances and chants based on traditional forms.

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Storytelling

Hawaii’s “talk story” storytelling culture began as entertainment in the royal courts and private homes, and continues as a widely practiced art form today. Its cultural roots, however, are deep and significant. Early Hawaiian was purely a spoken language. With no written expression to rely on, stories, legends and chants served as the media for preserving and passing along the histories, genealogies and mythologies to successive generations of Hawaiian people.

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Subsistence & Sustainability

The Hawaiian Islands lie thousands of miles from their nearest neighbor, making self sufficiency vital to the population’s long term existence and, thus, a cornerstone of the Polynesian culture. The need for subsistence provides a vivid backdrop for Ahupua‘a – the traditional Hawaiian practice of existing in complete harmony with nature. Hawaiians believe that all life – from the mountain tops to the ocean depths – is synergistic, and express that belief by farming, building, maintaining water supplies, and managing waste in ways that promote health and longevity for the ecosystem as a whole.