A light rain has just washed the afternoon air, and tiny droplets still shimmer in the breeze. The hint of a half-rainbow paints the sky behind the open-air stage, where the band is tuning up. The hula dancers, all young men, are chatting, readying themselves for the performance, while the audience sits on the grass in quiet expectation. It is the height of Aloha Week (September 28-October 6) in Hawaii, and an afternoon of music and dance is about to begin.
Hawaiians believe that music and dance are gifts from the gods, so they, in turn, share them freely - at this and other festivals such as Kuhio Day (March 26), the Merrie Monarch Festival (April 9), Lei Day (May 1), and King Kamehameha Celebration (June 11). And, on any other day of the year, one can hear old-timey music, called cha-lang a lang, wafting from backyards, beach cookouts, and even from funky old Hawaiian cars in the occasional fast-food parking lot.
But not from the hotels.
The last two decades have witnessed the cultural and political rebirth of native Hawaiians. No longer content to dance in the hotels of the tourist industry or to act like mainland-created caricatures of themselves, Hawaiians have rekindled pride in their heritage. They have sought out their own cultural traditions, from a revival of their ancient forms of dance - hula kahiko - to the renewed popularity of slack-key guitar in Hawaiian songs.
These songs, part contemporary and part traditional, celebrate Hawaii, even as they are critical of nonnatives whom Hawaiians see as having nearly destroyed their culture, self-identity, and sacred land. The lyrics of "Hawaiian Awakening" reveal the thrust of this concern:
Deep in this tortured land all alone
Hear the winds cry, the mountains moan…
We followed their rules much too long
Our protests are heard in our music and song.
Roots of Hawaiian music
Before Capt. James Cook "discovered" the Hawaiian Islands in 1778, indigenous Polynesian music was composed mainly of poetic and narrative chants. These chants were usually accompanied by percussive instruments - sharkskin drums, gourds, bamboo rattles - and, in religious ceremonies, a dignified form of dance performed only by men.
As simple as it sounded, this music was extremely complex in a cultural sense, playing a vital role in both daily life and in religious beliefs and services. The chant was a means of establishing contact between the people and their gods, and the act of entering a hula dance school was roughly equivalent, in terms of seriousness and dedication, to entering a monastery.
Traditionally, hula could be performed only by men during temple worship services, although women could dance it during secular festivities. The chants and dances generally accompanied ceremonies geared toward wished-for events, such as successful hunts and fishing trips, fertility (of plants and humans), and at the occasion
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