Native Hawaiians share experiences of feeling the presence of the ancestors while dancing hula
Everything to be known in the Hawaiian universe was contained in mele oli, or chants, and mele hula, or dances, as they tell the existence of the stars, heavens, land, sea, plants, animals, love,
chiefs and genealogies, said Cy Bridges, a Laie kupuna or honored elder.
The opening oli the Hawaiian Club did at Culture Night asked the Savior to be present, said Ian Carroll, president of the club and junior from Waianae studying psychology. “Look for that special spirit when we walk in,” he said, because they are dedicating the hula to someone living and someone passed, calling upon both sides of the veil.
Bridges, a kumu hula, or hula teacher, helped choreograph the dances for the club, specifically dedicating them to BYUH President John S. K. Kauwe and his late cousin Bill Wallace, who founded the BYUH Jonathan Napela Center for Hawaiian & Pacific Studies.
Dancing hula is a spiritual experience, said Teacher Advisor for the Hawaiian Club Jerusha Magalei. Magalei, who is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education & Social Work and daughter of Wallace. She said she can feel her ancestors near when performing the hula.
Bridges choreographed the dances in the style of the island of Molokai, she said, which brings back a lot of memories for Magalei. “I grew up on Molokai, and [the dances] take me back there,” she said.
“I think about my grandparents who raised me and my dad who has passed away.”
One of the olis the club chanted is also tied to the past for Magalei, she said. When her Māori grandmother passed away, she had a funeral in a Marae. Magalei said her dad chanted the same oli there, connecting them with their ancestors and extended family.
Laiekawai, another one of the dances performed at Culture Night, is a modern hula that reminds Magalei of her connection to Laie, she said. Her paternal grandmother raised her in Laie. Her great-grandparents went with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Iosepa, Utah, to be close to the temples in the area until President Joseph F. Smith told them to return to Hawaii to be near the Laie Hawaii Temple.
There is a Hawaiian belief, explained Magalei, that those living have benefited from seven previous generations, and whatever they do will benefit seven generations to come. “You are always thinking about your relationship with those who have gone before and those who are coming in Hawaiian thought. The chants do that for me.”
Carroll explained that, culturally, only kumu hula can choreograph a hula because they have gone through an uniki, or a hula graduation. Bridges explained, “Uniki means ‘to tie’ or ‘to fasten [or] make fast.’ [A hula student] takes all of the knowledge they have been given and ties it together. It is fastened to them.”