20 Sunday, April 1, 2018 Hawaii Tribune-Herald
2018 Merrie Monarch Festival
Best Wishes to All Merrie Monarch Contestants!
Best Wishes to All Merrie Monarch Contestants!
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They would use opihi shells
to pound the tree and get what
they called ‘ulu kepau. The
thing would come out like one
sticky sap. They’d leave ’em
on the tree and then pick ’em
off when they come hard.”
Lum Ho said they put the
sap in the shells and that would
attract the birds, like nectar.
“They’d leave ’em there
until when they pau work
and they go back and they
caught the bird and go pull
out the feathers. I picture
how the bird might wander
around in the forest,
searching for the honey.”
For their group ‘auana
(modern hula), Lum Ho
wrote a song about making
‘uli‘uli, feathered gourd rattles
used by hula dancers.
Not coincidentally, his wahine
made the ‘uli‘uli they’ll
use for their performance.
“I went down to the beach
to get the ali‘ipoe,” he said,
referring to the canna seeds
used to make the sounds. “Got
plenty of ’em. I didn’t know
they grew so fast. I grew ’em
where I live. When you look at
the flower, the buds come out.
Other people gave me some,
too, so I get enough ali‘ipoe
seeds to make the ‘uli‘uli.”
Lum Ho will sing and
play ‘ukulele. Also in his
band are singer-guitarists
Mark Yamanaka and Bert
Naihe, singer-‘ukuleleist
Kaleo Kalauoka‘ae‘a and
bassist Eddy Atkins.
Kalima’s group kahiko
is “Ko Hilo Ua Kiakahi,”
a chant written in 2001
by one of her students,
Roxanne Kapua Stewart.
“It’s talking about how the
rain nourishes the lehua, and
how the lehua withstands all
of this rain, from light rain to
pouring rain,” Kalima said.
The kaona (metaphoric subtext)
of the chant is the Hilo
rain being the nourishment
of knowledge imparted by
Kalima to her students.
They’ll use one of hula’s
more unusual implements,
the papahehi, or treadle
board, a skill taught
to Kalima by Na‘ope.
“You rock back and forth
and it makes sound and we’re
using the kala‘au (sticks),” she
said. “By using the different
beats on it, it becomes stronger
toward the end when we’re
talking about the pouring rain.”
For the ‘auana, her wahine
will dance to “Akaka Falls,”
a 1934 composition by Helen
Lindsey Parker listed as No.
22 in Honolulu Magazine’s
“50 Greatest Songs of Hawaii.”
It’s also the signature song
of Darlene Ahuna, the composer’s
great-grandniece.
“It’s going to make everybody
cry, because Darlene
Ahuna is singing it,” Kalima
said. “It’s unusual, because I
understand only one halau has
done it, back in the 1970s.”
There’s also a family connection
in the group ‘auana for
Halau Manaola. They’ll dance
to “Pua Lei Aloha,” which
was written and originally
performed by the late, great
Hawaiian falsetto Bill Ali‘iloa
Lincoln, an uncle of Lim Yap.
“‘Pua Lei Aloha’ was
written for a beautiful
musician named Alice
Fredlund,” Lim Yap said.
“He wrote the song for
her because her Hawaiian
name is Pualeialoha. It’s a
straight up, truly beautiful
love song. Alice and her husband,
Bill — his name was
Bill, also — had a recording
studio called Bell Records.
And Uncle Bill was one of the
first recording artists there.”
Lim Yap has a deep family
well of musicians to draw
from, including herself, her
husband, Ed Yap, her brother,
Sonny Lim, her sister, Lorna
Lim — the list goes on.
Her halau’s kahiko is “He
Hele No Kapi‘olani,” which
Lim Yap said was written
by Mrs. Kalei Hiwahiwa, a
confidante of the queen.
“It’s for her and King
Kalakaua and their efforts to
increase the Hawaiian race,”
she said. “They were of a
time when the Hawaiian race
was increasing but it was not
coming back as quickly as
they thought it should. So
with the decline from the
time of Kamehameha I, her
first agenda was to do that,
alongside her husband. So
she traveled throughout the
Hawaiian Islands, teaching
young mothers how to take
care of their children.
“In past years, we’ve delved
into some really ancient mele,
but this year, we wanted to
do something … with a more
modern take to it, more in
the Kalakaua period. And
we’ve found that this story
was something that was very
important for us to tell.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@
hawaiitribune-herald.com.
Kumu From page 19
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