ʻIke Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian Knowledge)
Hawaiian Language Immersion Experience
In this four-hour session, participants will be fully immersed in ʻōlelo kānaka (Hawaiian language). The workshop integrates both traditional and modern Hawaiian terminology, tailored for beginners and intermediate learners of our mother tongue. Participants will explore a variety of subject areas—including math, language arts, performing arts, and science—interwoven with cultural practices such as ʻōlelo noʻeau (wise sayings), haʻiʻōlelo (speech), mele (songs), oli (chants), and hula (dance).
By the end of the session, participants will showcase their learning through a haʻiʻōlelo hoʻolauna (self-introduction) in Hawaiian, as well as a newly learned mele oli or mele hula.
No prior knowledge of Hawaiian language is required. Please note that this session involves continuous physical movement, including sitting on the floor and standing.
Recommended Age: 12 and older
Duration: 4 hours
Class size limit: 30 participants
One time slot available:
-
Workshop Sessions 3-4 | Saturday, 9:00 AM - 1:15 PM
Your Instructor
Kuʻualohanui
Kauliʻa
Maui
D. Kuʻualohanui Kauliʻa was born in ʻEwa-Oʻahu, but raised on Hawaiian Homestead Land in Nānākuli. He comes from a family of 10 children, in which he is the muli loa (youngest). His father was born in Kakaʻako, but raised in Kaʻū until his teenage years. His mother's ʻohana comes from Hāna, Maui.
From a very early age, Kuʻu was able to speak Hawaiian with the help of his father, family elders, and kūpuna from the Hawaiian community of Waiʻanae. He later learned and grasped the Niʻihau dialect of the Hawaiian language. Growing up in a family of Hawaiian entertainers and recording artists from the 1930s, 1960s, and 1970s, he was often surrounded by traditional Hawaiian music as far back as he can remember. His journey in hula began in February 1980, initially with Kumu Hula (Loea) Leialoha Lim Amina. He further learned hula from C. Hoku Rasmussen, Moon and Lydia Kauakahi, Darrell Lupenui, John Kaʻimikaua, George Holokaʻi, and Kimo Alama-Keaulana, whom he was trained. He completed his ʻūniki rites in hula ʻōlapa, hula ʻalaʻapapa, and hula pahu. In the early 1990s, he also learned various hula and traditional oli under the tutelage of Kumu Hula Kalani Akana. Kuʻu taught in the Department of Education Hawaiian Immersion Program from 1987 to 1997, then taught middle school students at ʻIlima Intermediate School and the Kamehameha Schools Maui Campus. His teachings extended to other islands, the Continental U.S., and Japan since the mid to late 1990s. Kuʻu’s most recent past two and a half decades were dedicated to the legacy work at the Queen Liliʻuokalani Childrenʻs Center and the Kamehameha Schools. In February 2000, he was trained as a Haku Hoʻoponopono under his mentor, Aunty Malia Craver. In 2007, Aunty Malia asked Kuʻu to be one of her kākoʻo in helping to mentor and train 24 Kamehameha School staffers who completed the course. Kuʻu recently retired from the Kamehameha Schools on December 31, 2022. Prior to his retirement, Kuʻu also mentored and completed a hula training class, graduating (ʻūniki hula) six haumāna to carry on the hula legacy of Loea Hula Joseph Ilalaole, who hailed from Kaʻū and Puna, Hawaiʻi. This hula lineage is one that Kuʻu holds dearest to his heart. This ongoing love for hula, Kuʻu says, was inspired by his mentor, Kimo Alama-Keaulana.
E ola, e ola, e ola loa i ke aloha!