Hawai'i, Bob Marley, Jawaiian Music, Cultural ignorance

Before I even left the island, I listened to a lot of Bob Marley.  Hawai'i has a love of reggae music and has an evolution of what we call Jawaiian music.  How it evolved exactly I couldn't tell you.  For me, it is a lot in the laid back riddims and partially because of Hawaiian history.  While I am in no way shape or form of Hawaiian blood, I grew up knowing Hawaiian history, most of us did. For me and many others, Hawaii is more than just blood, it is a culture; we live it and breathe it.  I am not Hawaiian, I am local and a transplant.  I will be local until the day I die no matter where I live.  You cannot remove it from me.

I grew up taking hula classes, as did many of my friends.  Kumu Hulas will teach you the meanings of the songs you are dancing and you will learn both hula kahiko (traditional) and hula auana (contemporary) along with the different implements used for dancing.  You will also learn a bit of history, of the Gods and Goddesses of Hawai'i, a part of the land and you honor the earth and all living things.  It becomes a part of you and in some strange way it does not conflict with any Christian teachings you may or may not have.

In school, you are taught about King Kamehameha, who united all the islands in a great battle.  Prior to then all the islands were not united and were warring.  He brought everyone together in unity.  Then you learn about moving forward, the Kingdom, Captain Cooke, missionaries and eventually the imprisonment and overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai'i and Queen Lili'uokalani  by the US.  While I think about what could of, should of, may have happened and while I am happy to be American, the overthrow does not sit well with me at all.

You also have the option in school to take Hawaiian language classes, which I did.  I am embarrassed to say that I've lost whatever I did learn.  Just as I've lost the Japanese that I learned in school.  Oh I've kept the proper inflections and intonations and can read anything you put in front of me as long as they are written using the English alphabet, but as to their meaning?  Nope, gone.  If you don't use it, you lose it.

Which circles back around to Bob Marley, much of his music for me touches a chord deep down inside somewhere that has to do with our history.  So I delved into his history and Jamaica's history.  Why he wrote what he did.  It brought me to read about his religion, Rastafarian and Haile Selassie I for whom they believed to be the return of the Messiah.  It also lead me to read about Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X.  At the time, living in Hawai'i, I had no real point of reference for these historical figures because there is no real racism, not to the degree that it is here.  These books were like a floating historical novel a history that has long since passed.

The thing that I've learned here on the mainland is that many MANY people are ignorant to the history of Hawai'i and in general ignorant about other cultures, sometimes even their own.  Why is this?

How is it that people do not even realize that American culture is a big giant stew made up of so many cultural heritages.  I haven't quite figured that one out yet.  Are people just walking around in their own little bubbles of ignorance and don't bother to look up?

Hawai'i recognizes that local culture is a giant pot of stew made up of all our heritages.  We embrace it, and love it.  It is part of what makes us local, we've embraced it so much we don't even think about it any longer.  At least I don't.  I came here looking for manapua and couldn't find any so I had to make it.  Finding a recipe was another matter.  In Hawai'i it is manapua, the REAL name for it is bau and is Chinese in origin.  It took me a whole week to figure this out.  Arrrggggh.  I walked around the house for an entire hour saying "bau bau bau bau bau" trying to figure out how you get from "bau" to "manapua".  You tell me if you figure it out or know.  And yes I make fabulous manapua now. :P

I have to go now. :)  Peace and blessings.