‘O Li‘ulā ko‘u Inoa
 |
| Eia ke kiʻi no ka hana keaka Kalamaʻula, he moʻolelo me Liʻulā (hema) a me kona mau hoa haumāna ʻo Anna a me ʻo Sadie, i ka papa Hawaiian Performance Workshop me Kumu Hailiʻōpua Baker ma Kennedy Theatre i ke kau Spring 2025. 📷 Lurana Donnels O'Malley |
⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟⃟
9 ʻOkakopa 2025
Ka Hōʻike ʻana i "Kulāiwi" (nā Kumu Larry Kimura)
I kēlā Pōʻalima nei, ua himeni mākou...
11 ʻOkakopa 2025
Kuleana: Teaching Hana Keaka, Performing Mele, Finding Pilina
In my Theatre and Dance 100 class this semester, I had students watch part of the filmed hana keaka Laieikawai, produced on the Kennedy Theatre Mainstage in 2015. For twenty minutes, they were immersed in the Hawaiian language. Their responses were varied, from delight to boredom. I had written about the production that year, after reading a review that deplored the choice of the director, Kumu Hailiʻōpua Baker, to provide no English translation in the form of super- or sub-titles during the live performances. I had disagreed with the reviewer and what I considered her colonizing mindset. I shared these different perspectives with my students as a way to teach about the Hawaiian concept of “kulenea,” which is central to my teaching pedagogy. When I talk to students about kuleana, I explain that the various lived experiences, histories, roles, families, and the communities comprised through our relationships all inform a person's sense of kuleana. I encourage students to decenter the self and see their position as one point of view in a great web of understanding. After reading selections from Shawn Wilson’s Indigenous Research Methods*, I find my own understanding of kuleana broadened by the dream he shares about being a point of light connecting to others that maybe all are part of the same oneness. Furthermore, when learning a new song for my Hawaiian Language class, “Kulāiwi,” by Kumu Larry Kimura, my Kumu, Alicia Rozet, explained one of the lines in the song in a way that also deepened my understanding of Kuleana. “Ke kuleana no ka ʻōiwi” refers to the reciprocal rights and responsibilities of native Hawaiians in relation to their land and ancestors. She talked about how “iwi” are bones, and to be ʻōiwi means that the bones of your ancestors are not only buried in Hawaiʻi, but that they return to the ʻāina, one with the food grown here and the water that rains down upon you here. I am not ʻōiwi but my children are. I grew their iwi in my body and they will always be part of who I am now. Their kuleana is my kuleana.
*Wilson, Shawn. Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods. Halifax and Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing, 2008.
15 ʻOkakopa 2025
Nā Papa ma Waho o Ka Lumi Papa
Ua hui pū aʻela mākou, ka papa Performance as Research...
22 ʻOkakopa 2025
Self as Safe Haven
After reading the Stephanie Nohelani Teves’ essay "Cocoa Chandelier’s Confessional: Kanaka Maoli Performance and Aloha in Drag” and listening to Sami Akuna talk about the evolution of Drag during their visit to our Performance as Research class this past Friday, I have been reflecting on my own journey with performance of self and alternative selves. Since childhood, I have always felt somehow different from the people around me. Somehow disconnected. Somehow other. A daydreamer and deep thinker, lost in my own world and yet ready to dive into intimacy with certain people in ways that were not well received. Too friendly for the other kids. Too much for the other parents. Too loud, too naive, too observant, too eager.
All this to say that at some point in adolescence, I began to try on different personas, as many young people do. Sometimes it seems to me that only now, in my forties, do I feel very comfortable in my own body. In my own clothes. After birthing three children and finding intimacy with so many others, after playing different characters on stage and reading or writing them on the page, only after decades of different forms of self rejection or self neglect am I now learning to be content with myself. It’s like returning home after an odyssey.
I don’t know what this means for me as an artist, a performer, a woman… but it feels stabilizing at a time when life outside my skin feels often inevitably dangerous. It feels safe here, even if there is more pain in store. That seems like an idea worth exploring. How can I extend my safety to the vulnerable around me? How can I become part of a network of safety and protection from the violence? How can my work and my life nurture this sense of self as safe haven?
8 Novemapa 2025
Live Performance
After the class readings and discussion from recent weeks, I have decided to do a live performance for my final 617 project, instead of a film as initially intended. Everything coalesced for me after our class on Friday, 11/7/2025, and as I drove from UH to pick up my daughter at school, I began to compose the performance in my mind.
My tentative title is ʻO Liʻulā Koʻu Inoa and this performance will be in the form of a multigenre and multilanguage monologue. My goal is to perform the self through the languages I have learned and to trace my evolution through linguistic expression.
I will open the performance by chanting the mele oli Welina Mānoa, which I learned in my ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi 101 class from Kumu Kekeha Solis. Joshua Kamoani‘ala "Baba" Tavares’ production of Rent last semester started with this same mele oli.
Afterwards will come an introductory monologue, switching between Hawaiian and English as appropriate, but not translating one or the other. I will talk about where I am from, my family, and how I came to live in Hawaiʻi.
Next I will share about my experience studying abroad in Korea and studying the language while practicing Taekwondo and immersing myself in another culture.
My experience with Theatre in Hawaiʻi naturally follows, and my journey through the theatrical landscapes of community and university performance, as an actor, a director, and a critic.
For the final section of the performance, I will sing the mele Kulāiwi by Kumu Larry Kimura, which I learned this semester from Kumu Alicia Rozet. This song will lead to a reflection on how my body, and the children created within them, strengthens my kuleana with this ʻāina.
I will close the performance with an original mele oli created in response to the painting by Russell Sunabe at the Capitol Modern.
Comments
Post a Comment