Immersive Hawaiian experience at this weekend’s “Hoolau Kanaka” event

HONOLULU (KHON2) – There is a big difference between going to a hula festival put on by organizers of events and a hula festival put on by a halau and hula people.

That is exactly what you will be getting this Sunday at the Moanalua Gardens for the 8th Hoolau Kanaka.

To find out more, we are here with one of the kumu hula of Halau Na Mamo o Na Puuanahulu and Event Coordinators of Hoolau Kanaka, Kumu Lopaka Igarta-De Vera.

What was the reasoning of bringing this together in the first place??

“The reasoning for bringing this together actually over 10 years ago was to bring a non-competitive event for halau, kumu hula and for our supporters, family and friends to come and to enjoy hula,” says Igarta-De Vera.

“A lot of people see us competing at the Merrie Monarch or Kamehameha Day, Ia Oe e Ka La, you name it, all these competitions but we are really friends first and we maintain that friendship. So, we brought that to Honolulu because a lot of the times we would do that in Japan and people would see it online, especially with social media today, and they wanted that. They wanted to see halau coming together, multiple halau, and to share their genealogy of their hula so that was the start and we have worked all these years to where it got today.”

I love the word “friendship” and “relationships.”

One of the other aspects though is bringing in relationships from other practices so there are a lot of other things to experience at Hoolau Kanaka, not just hula.

So, to find out more about the cultural practices, we are here with Sai Aganon, an Event Coordinator.

How important is it to bring in other cultural arts within a hula festival?

“It’s really important. The hula provides one avenue to experience culture and then kapa making, tattooing, it makes the culture even broader and provide more depth to people who come and experience those things,” says Aganon.

“Hula always gives an avenue for language and the language connects all of these cultural practices together so you might come and experience something you like, go home, take it away, think about it and then actually call somebody up to start to practice those other cultural practices, not just the hula.”

I think that is important because it shows one aspect of Hawaiian culture really relates to others.

I am here with Sean Cozo, an Event Coordinator.

One new thing this year to Hoolau Kanaka would be more of a resource aspect to that.

What does that look like this year?

“This year, we are having about 10 different organizations come and share and promote some of the resources, the programs, the educational programs that they have available to the community,” says Cozo.

“This is being able to provide support, one other aspect of the sense of community that can be available through other means other than just hula and arts, but so that our lahui can be able to thrive.”

Again, the 8th time of the Hoolau Kanaka and it will be hosted at the Moanalua Gardens.

If you want to enjoy this for yourself, be sure to get your tickets while they still are available.

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For all the information on this Sunday’s event, click here.