‘Ai Hula As hula feeds the soul, shared food nourishes hālau spirit. By Wanda A. Adams Photos By Romeo Collado FEATURED MOʻOLELO
H
ula is life. For kumu and their haumāna, hula feeds into every aspect of life: body, mind, heart, and soul. And what is more life-giving than food itself, or more likely to engage people young and old? When we asked Kumu Hula about the relationship between food and hula—seemingly an odd ques- tion on the face of it — they didn’t find it strange at all.
talked about the importance of nutrition in building bodies strong enough for the dance. They described food traditions observed by some hālau — refraining from certain foods in preparation for competition or eating certain foods as part of particular hula-related ceremonies. “Food is in everything,” said Kumu Hula Lilinoe Lindsey of Ka Pā Nani ‘O Lilinoe (Mānana, Pearl City). “We structure our lives around it.” Her classes always include a snack break, in which students “hui pū” (gather together). “We have everybody sit in a circle, nobody gets to sit out,” said Lindsey, sharing snacks as Kumu prompts them to talk about what’s happening in their
They talked about how preparing and sharing food builds cohesion within the hālau and without, among the students’ families and the hālau kōkua (volunteers). They talked about the central place of food in Hawaiian cosmology and the many mele that celebrate foods, farming, fishing, and feasting. They
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49 YEARS OF CELEBRATING KEIKI AND THE ART OF HULA
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