Nā Meheu Wāwae
(Footprints)

23rd from the series:‘Ike Ho‘omaopopo by artist: LeoHone

E Alaka‘i… in the sands of time along life’s ever shifting shoreline, you need to step quickly into the footprints of your kumu— before those precious prints can be washed away …and are no more…

For thousands of years, the main vehicle for the preservation and perpetuation of the different cultures throughout the Old World has been the written records of the respective scribes and historians.

Hawaiian history was oral history and, prior to the 19th century, there was no written language to document the stories and events of the past. The ancient expressions of storytelling came through dance (hula kahiko) with its chants (oli), carrying the island culture down through the centuries. Hula kahiko kept the stories alive. Hula kahiko was the vehicle that conveyed the history of the islands.

Through the documentation of Captain Cook (1778, Kaua‘i), we learn that both men and women performed hula dances. (I personally am most drawn to the pulsating strength of kāne kahiko, thus preferring to feature a male dancer.) This ancient, traditional hula (hula kahiko) has been untainted and uninfluenced by modern Western music styles and Western instruments such as ‘ukulele and guitar. It portrays the words of the oli through a visual dance, using traditional percussion instruments (i.e. ipu heke or double gourd, rhythm sticks, rattles made of gourds, and pahu drums.)

The real life dancer is Kawika Mersberg, Alaka‘i (hula leader and, in this case, also a Kumu or hula teacher) together with his own Loea (Kumu Hula) Kapi‘olani Ha‘o, Hālau Ke Kia‘i A O Hula. In an effort to represent the cultural influence that is ever present but that one cannot actually see, I have portrayed in spirit form both the Kumu Hula and Alaka‘i – Kawika again but this time in traditional Kāne Kahiko attire, replete with head lei (lei po‘o), neck lei, wrist and ankle lei (kūpe‘e), and a bulky style of the male loincloth (malo). Kapi‘olani is the same Kumu Hula portrayed in spirit in my earlier hula painting (2004).