MERRIE MONARCH: IS THERE TOO MUCH SMILING DURING KAHIKO, WHERE HAVE THE SYMBOLS GONE?

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE HONOLULU ADVERTISER

Is there too much smiling during Kahiko performances amung the women?
A resounding YES!! It seems the men were encouraged to keep up[ a serious air, while the women have been increasingly giddy while performing the sacred Kahiko. Everybody gives the same excuse. Oh your just so excited its such a rush when the audience is screaming and yelling, sometimes with the meanings its hard not to smile, ect., ect.,

Now before you people start calling me a no nothing armchair quarterback, let me just inform you that although I have never been able to go physically to a merrie monarch hula competition, I have been a hula dancer and chanter for over 35 years. I first danced hula on a stage at age 12. I am a traditional hula chanter, and a kumu in my own right although I do not have a known halau. My halau follows the old ways. Those whom I teach I each in private for free without charge and without public performances. I teach a religion not a public spectacle for the enjoyment of the tourists.

I hve been critiquing the MMHF since it was first aired on TV and those of us on Kauai were able to watch it. Over the years I have seen it essentially going down the tubes. It has become a commercial tourist extravaganza with younger and younger papered or "palapala" kumus coming to the forefront. Those of Native Hawaiian ancestry are becoming fewer and fewer amung the ranks of the halaus.  You see a huge influx of caucasion, asian and filipino dancers now being the majority in all halaus.

Now you are going to say hey your a racist hula is for everyone, bla bla bla. Yeah, but like everything the Hawaiians, and Polynesians begin, everyone else has to do them one better. Just like outrigger canoing, and surfing. Everybody does it now. Hula is now the same.

With its glut of fake kumus who took a few lessons from some papered kumu now flooding the world with their cheesy versians of what Hawaiian Culture is. OK now there are going to be those of you squaking: Hey your just jealous becasue your not papersed! You never unikie'd! You are half white! AND YOU ARE NOT EVEN HAWAIIAN SO SHUT UP!!  blah blah bhlah!!. Ok lemme answer that. Yes, I DID uniki,. long before someone came and cut down  all the vegetation so that Kee heiau could be seen. It had been hidden for decades on purpose. Im may be part Native American but like I said, I was orpaned at 12 years old and hanaid. The REAL hanai, not the  u come for christmas and thanksgiving kind.Then of course the idea to reopen it for everyone to come and uniki and all the halaus to come, ect. As long as you put down the la'i, and danced with your halau you were considered unikied.

Hey man thats not how ke'e WORKS.

To uniki is a PRIVATE, and INDIVIDUAL thing. Further, not even the GREAT Iulani Luahine OR Auntie Nona Beamer was able to uniki at Ke'e. Are all those little high school kids and their paper kumus telling me they were better then THEY were? That 20 poeple can be louder than the wind and surf I agree. But can each one of them pass the old test?

I used to go once a year, with a freind, or hanai relative. I would make the trip up to Ke'e quietly without fanfare. I would cleanse, do all of the rituals, and we would go before dawn. I would ascend to kee and chant by myself. I went in the winter not in the summer, so the elements would be loud. WInd, high surf. Some years it was nearly impossible to get up there, and some years i thought the wind would knock me down. But, when I was able to physically i would go and do it.

I only brought one witness. They didnt even have to know about hula. Sometimes i even brought a tourist or two. All they had rto do was one thing. Tell me if they could hear my words clearly from the beach at Kee by the old trees. If they said yes, I knew I had yet again passed, and i continued to dance and chant.

I have failed this test a few times.  In those years I NEVER DANCED OR CHANTED.But I will say that in the last 35 years I have failed maybe 5 times. Thats pretty good odds. However I have missed the last 2 years, because of my health. SO I am unsure wether i still have the right to dance or chant. BUT this is following the CORRECT way.

A pecve of paper can NEVER make u a kumu. EVER. That idea was started in the modern era. It does have its goodthings about it. A haumana who has studied 10 or 20 years, I beleive DOES have the right to call themselves a kumu. HOWEVER, I beleive that age is an important factor. Young kumus may have new ideas, but they lack the knowlege of experiencing the gods. You dont get to have that knowlege enough in your youth. IN my opinion a Kumu should NEVER be under the ago of 35 oe 40 years old.

If you really take that to its farthest conclusion I actually beleive you should be a kupuna before you begin to teach. Many would say thats ridiculous. You would not have time to teach a haipo. I dissagree. That may be for a commercial halau, but not for a traditional one. The eldest child, or the second eldest if the oldest shows no talent, or your hanai, should have been being trained by you in private all along, and ready to assume leadership. Kumus tratitionally have long life expectations. This is becasue REAL kumus do not ussually engage in alchohol, cigarettes or drugs, although many modern kumus do. Even Iolani Luahine was a famous drinker, although she was a sacred kahiko dancer, NEVER SMILED, and was purely POSESSED when she danced.. But during hula, or teaching this is strictly kapu. SO in the end, much less bad habits amung the kumus then acverage helps to prolong life as well as the rigors of hula.

Now I am not against paper halaus. I just dont beleive they should turn into Kumu mills, where if you spoend x amount of dollars, take x amount of clasases, and techhniclly pass everything, and you umiki in some public ceremony, which was never supposed to be public however, that you get your palapala and now you can teach. BUT what is your experience, on your own? what is YOUR style? who are your kino laus? what gods and godesses will you follow? You may have a church given hula name, but who are you really?

Ok what does this have to dfo with SMILING at the merrie monarch? P:ENTY!!! Modern paper halau Kumus allow students to smile. They are not following a religion. They are PERFORMING. Hula Kahiko is a RELIGION. It is poart of a RELIGIOUS practice SACRED to the gods. You dont smile. You become the gods, and the godesses much like voodoo in haiti, although different as well. There is nothing in this practice to show you are HERE in this mopdern world. You are SUPPOPSED to be gone. transfixed and POSESSED of the God or Godess you are SUPPOSED to be posessed by. Not smiling like you are in some hula show, sweetly and dem,urely, and all coherent and  whatever. THAT IS NOT KAHIKO!!

I can remember the arguments about smile or not to smile. The rules in MMHF were changed to allow smiling. Many of us were appalled. If a halau smiles and is NOT attentive top the God or Godess they are too me honoring I COMPLETELY mark them off my list asa a good halau, and the kumu to a paper kumu only.

Now here is ANOTHER pet peeve of mine. The halaus have become to PLAIN!!!! The material, devoid of symbolism, the skin, devoid of symbolism, all traces of the ancient meanings gone. Some halaus do better with the traditional pau then others, some at least make an attempt, and the men especially seem to be allowed more traditional roles then the womne. Which is a completel fallacy because women had their own heiaus, and their own sacred ceremonies which were completely kapu to men, including dances and mele and oli.

The fact is that the polynesian dance has ALWAYS been one of symbols. Tatoos, markings on the clothing, ect. In some years of the MMHF this has been popular, but as I said, the MMHF has become a populist tourist attraction. Tourists want to see pretty thin girls in flowers, and pretty church like dresses smiling sweetly and being flirty, while they want to see muscled warriors greased up and looking like warriors shouting and whooping. This is what Kahiko, the most sacred religious observance of the people has turned into.

Now dont get me wrong. We are looking at the Merrie Monarch period here. We are looking at the Kalakaua period with its western influence. But the kings idea was to bring back traditional observances. If you will notice at his coronation, dancers did NOT smile, they were NOT young, and there WAS symbolism. All too often, the merrie monarch has become a dance of high school kids, with the older members delegated to the back row, instead of up front where they belonged.

There is a famous woodcut from the 18 century showing a halau block of maybe 30 women, the hair all short and limed in front, tattoed and topless performing. TO those who dfo NOT know, these women were NOT YOUNG. Hair was cut after a certain age, and the fashion was to lime it around the edges. These women w90uld have all been older, not young girls. And they were tattoed even on thier faces.

ANOTHER pet peeve of mine is short western hair for the men. Traditional dancers had LONG HAIR, not short cropped Mormon missionarry hair. NOR did they wear womens style lei poo. I am sick of all the men looking so squeeky clean Mormon missionarry style. I would prefer to see some real warriors out tthere. Also I would like to see more lua movements in Kahuiko for the men, as that was what the male kahiko was composed of. Enough with the flowery stuff. I will also say I am impressed with the womens lua movements however they are not performing their own traditional religious movements. Of course they would probably shock the audience so I suppose they cant be allowed to move out of their missionarry looking poerformances. However the men seem allowed to do their movements to no shock of the audience. I teach my women traditional ma'i. The movements are not pretty and graceful. They are what they are, honoring the female godesses, of which there are aqt least 20 thousand. Thats another thing. Honour some other gods and godesses besides the main ones. There are thousands. FInd some of them. Much has been lost, but much can be regained.

Lets return Merrie Monarch to what it is supposed to be, shall we? Or not.  Well thats my rant. You can pick it apart, and pull it to shreds, and call it jealousy, sour grapes, or just chalk me up to a crazy half white lady who is old and embittered and a gfftaud and has no idea what I am talking about. But those of you who know I know exactly what im talking about will probably be in complete agreement. And it sure feels good to get that all out!!

Now its time to watch Auana night. Of which I have no complaints, since its a free for all. In my opinion save the smiling for Auana night, and get back in touch with the gods on Kahiko nite, thats all. And QUIT SMILING.

My reaction to the HB444 Rally-APPALLED AND DISGUSTED

Thousands rally against same-sex civil unions bill | honoluluadvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser



MY OFFICIAL RESPONSE

You might want to examine the actions of the "Rabbi Daniel Vargas", who, according to legitimate synagogues is NOT an ordained rabbi, and his screaming that the buildings should fall and the city should be destroyed and then having people blow 10 ram horns was considered highly blasphemous to the Jewish faith. Also, Mufi Hanneman and Duke Aiona are public servants and have a conflict of interest by showing up and espousing their religious beliefs at the state capitol which is not Gods house but ALL OF THE POEPLE'S HOUSE, including taxpaying gay legal citizens of the state of Hawaii. What that means, is that by association, these two politicians were in favor of crashing down buildings by blowing ram horns, and therefore share in the fake rabbis blasphemous sin of misusing the name of another legitimate religious belief. Truly shameful.

Were all of you wearing white because you think yourself more pure than the rest of the people in this state? It was quite gruesome, and I found the videos of the event quite disturbing. Native Hawaiians believed the color white to be the color of evil, and it was the color of all practicing anaana kahunas (ie the ones that prayed people to death). It is also the color used in voodoo ceremonies to pray an enemy to death. That, coupled with the screaming fake rabbi calling for the destruction of public property was nothing to be proud of.

Further, civil unions have nothing to do with religious marriage practices, and will not affect YOUR marriage status at all, therefore I do not understand what your issue is with a secular process, since it has nothing to do with any of your religious beliefs, since according to all of you gays are not permitted in all of your religions, why would you have a problem with it? Its not as if they will be joining any of you in your churches or religions anyway.

SO why don't you just stick to your religious beliefs and practice whatever you want to in your religious life, and leave the secular civil unions alone? It really has nothing to do with any of you, and is not about any of you, and none of you have any stake in it what so ever. Frankly it is none of your business. Further, I am apalled that Mufi who claims to be a Democrat would publicly attend an event like this, and be openly prejudiced against people. I thought only republicans did that shame on all of you. For the record, I am not gay., but straight.

Further, it is entirely reprehensible to me that so many people could be whipped into a frenzy over religious zealotism. Haven't you people learned anything from Jihadist terrorist groups making Islam look like a mockery of itself. You are nothing more than terrorists. Yes terrorists. You are inciting violence against your fellow human beings, you are publicly supporting prejudice, and you are coming out in force to say that some people do not deserve the same CIVIL RIGHTS as you do. WHen I see people of color, and young people in those crowds that's when I really become sick to my stomach.

How many of you are aware that people of color could NOT HOLD OFFICE IN THE MORMON CHURCH as recently as the 80s!!!! And that would include MUFI HANNEMAN!!! I was once enrolled in the Mormon church and was a convert. Not anymore. I found the more I realized what that religion was all about the least I wanted to do with it. I was grown up as a DEVOUT CATHOLIC!!! ANd I was so devout, I went to a Catholic private school, and believed in the church wholeheartedly. That was until all the priests started molesting little boys and girls, and I found out the histories of abuse, murder, torture and mayhem perpetuated in the name of Christ by the Catholic church. What are all of you talking about anyways? Is traditional marriage truly traditional?

I happen to know no fewer than THREE MORMON BISHOPS that have left their wives and children to fool around with mistresses. HOW IS THIS TRADTIONAL FAMILY VALUES? That really turned me off to the Mormon Church permanently and forever. But this show of prejudice, hate and fearmongering is the last straw for me. Do not expect me to stand by while all of you espouse your holy perfections and holier than thou attitudes while you continue to belong to religions that support such reprehensible beliefs. If Christ was here, he would throw you all out of the House of the Lord, let me tell you that. Christ was very political. All of you are like the Pharisees in the bible, which you all claim to espouse so perfectly.

The Pharisees were the conservative, judgmental law of the land who thought they were the be all and the end all of moral values. Christ ran around with 12 men, kissed them publicly on the cheek regularly and was unmarried and had no children. If Christ were alive today, you people all gathered there with your self righteous pompous attitudes would have surely accused him of being gay. DO NOT LIE because you KNOW YOU WOULD HAVE. You would be the ones to have condemned him, nailed him to a cross, and killed Christ, who would have died for your idiocy and stupidity. SO DO NOT TELL ME that you are all about CHRIST!!

There is NOTHING CHRISTLIKE in ANY of you, at all. I remain forever disgusted and embarrassed for each and every single one of you. When your time comes you will be most certainly judged. I am no longer a Christian, but I do believe in Christ. Believing in Christ is far different from being these modern styled self righteous judgmental prejudiced people that these individuals have become. Sickening. Shame.

IS THE JEWISH RELIGION BEING MOCKED IN THIS PROTEST AGAINST GAYS??

Apparantly the answer is YES. In what has become my very first crack at "investigative reporting", I knew something was up when I saw this video. When The nice Rabbi gets all these 12 sacred horns, and has people hold and blow them that aren't of the Jewish faith, while wearing the sacred prayer shawls of the Jewish people, I was immediately alerted to protocol red lights going off in my head.

Maybe it is because I am a cultural practitioner, and I have seen so many many people ripping off the Hawaiian, Buddhist, Hindu, and Native American and Amazonian and South American tribal customs that the hairs stood out at the back of my neck. And it was NOT the costuming!~!

It was what the "Rabbi" was screaming at the top of his lungs..."GOD SAID LET THE BUILDINGS FALL LET THE CITY BE DESTROYED LET THE CITY BE DESTROYED!!", in apparently a re enactment of the "Walls of Jericho" incident in the bible/Torah.

Now, I smelled a RAT. A great big fat one that you could saddle up and ride if you could. SO I started investigating. I called my friend Mr. DePledge over at the Honolulu Advertiser, who gave me the name of the gentleman responsible for calling on the destruction of concrete buildings, while people in Haiti were crawling out from their own destructive earthquake which the "Reverend" Pat Robertson had just declared was "Their fault because they made a pact with the devil". (More on that on my blog).

Then, from there, I tracked him down to the GovernorsPrayerTeam website, calling the coordinator, who I did reach on the mainland. Turns out it was an old number, and the gentleman is no longer a part of the organization.

Well, I decided to unload on the poor guy anyways. Come to find out he was triple X shocked art what I told him, and he said that no Christian group or Jewish group would call on the destruction of buildings which would surely lead to loss of life.

It was then I realized, from looking back at the video I thought I saw someone blowing the horn that was from Kauai and a very prominent leader and an old freind of mine, and certainly not Jewish. But I am thinking maybe my eyes are bad, S so I am asking around trying to see if others think it is that person before I call that person up and give that person a decided piece of my mind.

Ah, but back to the Rabbi. So I tried to call him, but he wasnt taking calls it seems. The gentlemans name, "Rabbi" Daniel Jeshurin Vargas was the man in question. Now before I go on about someone, I need facts, so I called up one of the terrific Synagogues here, on Oahu, and got a terrific person on the other end who was frankly shocked and appalled as well.

I was told, that this person was known and was NOT A RABBI, but believed in coverting Jews to Christianity, or believed in some form of Jewish beliefs and Christianity all mixed up into one another. When I detailed the specifics of the ceremony again, the person was very shocked. I did get their views on civil unions and gays, which I actually found quite reasonable.

But I was told decidedly that his behavior was absolutely NOT CONDONED by the Jewish faith, and that Jewish people would NEVER CALL FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS OR LOSS OF LIFE> I also learned that again, this "Rabbi" is no Rabbi at all, and is not in any way connected to any legitimate ordained order or sect of the Jewiosh faith.

Then I sent this person, who was with the Chabad Of Hawaii (I did get permission to use the name) emphaticly stated several things:

1. The Jewish community would never condone such behavior
2. He is NOT an ordained Rabbi
3. The Jewish Community is not coming out against civil unions
4. What he did is completely against any type of Jewish faith.
5. He may be of Jewish ancestry, but is NOT a Rabbi
6. It was highly sacriligious to use such sacred items in such a way

So, to Mr. Vargas, I would like you to know that I will make sure people know about you, and your blasphemous group, and how you blasphemed the Jewish religion and faith by your actions. Shame and HEWA.

Of course, I realized after watching the video again how funny it was, if your idea had actually worked, the people were all crowded into the rotunda, thousands would have died, if the building had indeed fallen, and the city of Honolulu, had you been right and the horns would have destroyed the city, hundreds of thousands of people would have died, and a similar tragic situation would have been seen around the world.

And you, MR VARGAS would have been RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT!

I invite you to post here, Mr. Vargas and explain your heinous act of TERRORISM!!

WAILUA MAUKA PATH PHOTOS BY BRAD PARSONS

WAILUA MAUKA ALTERNATIVE BY BRAD PARSONS

This is a adobe flash player of large clear photos that show exactly where the bike path mauka goes.

GET EDUCATED MAKE AN INFORMED DECISION

"Christians", conservatives and other cynics: TAKE HEED!! My pre Christmas Rant.

I have not been associated with any religion (organised) for quite some time now. I beleive in many religious ideals, in so long as they support compassion, justice, equity, and do not promote war or racism. However many of the worlds religions do not practice what they preach.

My personal crusade to take up the cause of the poor, opressed, discriminated against, misunderstood, forgotten and unwanted in society is has been and will be a battle waged by my own personal stpry. As an orphan, an adoptee, as a child that was "taken away" adopted out, and bought and paid for and essentially sold by a so called "Christian" organization, to two poeple who when they were done playing "dress up" and being a parent literally tossed me to the curb at the age of 12 because of my non conforming looks.

I take this stuff very seriousely. I found this little video clip.  I feel like here in Hawaii, we are more of a third world country, with many of our people suffering very badly here. We have haves and have nots, and those who have prospered even within our own ranks. But they insist that it is to be christian and christian only that saves you. Its your own fault otherwise. A lack of compassion, or just showing face at certain times of the year.

Granted our little ohana has been the recipient of much "good will." How much was given out of guilt to assuage the conscience I will never know. How much was given in the spirit of true aloha? I can only hope that all of it was. At any case there was always two times a year our little ohana has been remembered by the community. Thanksgiving and Christmas. After that, we would wait another year for someone to want to do something for someone lesser then them, and we were the recipient of that "lesser gift".

Of course that does sound like I am being ungrateful, un aloha, rude, and just plain terrible doesn't it? I mean after all, how DARE! Right? Human dignity means far more then what people who give from their true hearts really comprehend. Giving back someones dignity to them, and making them feel like an equal, is a far greater gift then anything physical you could ever give in a lifetime of boxes of cookies or bags of used clothing, although they are appreciated and needed.

Human dignity and respect for all humans, everywhere, no matter what. That is my goal for this world. My personal crusade. It is not about giving and getting points in heaven. The god that christians beleive in seems to be a god of Las Vegas at times, keeping score, racking up points and throwing out chips onto the roulette wheel of life. "Hey you gave that poor family down the street a bag of your used clothing from your kids! You recycled, saved the planet, did a good deed! I mean after all, the clothes would just go to waste otherwise!".

OK, heres a thought. How about doing without some of your comforts and buying that family NEW CLOTHES! How about buying them NEW THINGS instead of all of your hand me downs? Now I can see your brain becoming a lava pit of anger.  "Whats wrong with this woman has she lost her mind? Why I wore my siblings hand me downs if its good enough for us its good enough for them!"

Well, yes thats probably everyones gut reaction. I mean if you are giving something to the poor they should be grateful for anything that is given them. Well they are, but you are entirely missing the point.

HUMAN DIGNITY is NOT A COMMODITY.
Its NOT something you wear, and its not something that you can buy.
Its not candy, or a well cooked turkey, or christmas ham.
Its not a toy, or a hand me down jacket.

Human dignity goes much deeper then that. If you were to ask anyone who is truly SUFFERING what they would prefer: A tin of Christmas cookies, or a half an hour of your time where you speak to each other as equals, or you proudly take them and indroduce that person as your friend, and invite them into a conversation as an equal, I guarantee you, they would not take the cookies, trust me.



Catalyst 2009 Compassion Moment from Catalyst on Vimeo.