Kekuhi Kealiikanakaole-lilikalani-o-haililani is the teacher and creator of Oli Honua! online Hawaiʻi chant training & Ulu Ka ʻŌhiʻa-Hula seminar. Kekuhi is from the highly visual and transformational Kanakaʻole family whose primary traditional Hawaiian practice directly links them to the Pele, volcanic creation of the islands. The Kanakaʻole family hula or dance traditions are internationally known for their inherited dance and chant style that honors the creative energies of the volcano. They trace their hula, Hawaiian cultural, lineage back eight matrilineal generations. The second noteworthy and less known family history is the Kaniʻaulono family genealogy. The Kaniʻaulono connection directly links Kekuhi not only to an outstanding spiritual and social leadership heritage, but also links her to the primal phenomenon of the beginning of the Hawai'i universe, the creation of stars, sky, land, and one of the progenitors of the Hawaiian race, Haloa or the taro. Kekuhi has trained in the tradition of Hula ʻAihaʻa for 39 years and was ritually elevated to the status of Kumu Hula (hula master) of Hālau o Kekuhi by her mother, Kumu Hula Pualani Kanahele and her Aunt Kumu Hula Nalani Kanakaole. Under the direction of her mentors, Kekuhi has co-produced some of Hālau O Kekuhi's most significant contributions to oral and ritual arts performances, namely, Holo Mai Pele, Kamehameha Paiʻea, Kilohi Nā Akua Wahine, Hānau Ka Moku, and Wahinepōʻaimoku. Kekuhi has taught many workshops, seminars and lectures on the topics of hula, ritual, chant, Hawaiʻi art forms, evolution of Hawaiian music and others. Her training in the Hawaiʻi ritual process has prepared her to design and lead ceremony in Hawaiʻi for the last 20 years, including the most recent 2014 launch of Hokulea and Hikianalia on their Malama Honua World Wide Voyage. She has been teaching the hula process since she was 10 years old.Kekuhi is an Assistant Professor and co-creator of Hawai'i Community College's I Ola Haloa Hawaii Life Styles Program. She was honored as 2013 Educator of the Year by the Native Hawaiian Education Association and received the distinction of the Martin Luther King, Chavez, Rosa Parks Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan in 2013. June Tanoue: Would you tell me what you currently spend your time doing and your passions?
Kekuhi Kealiikanakaole-lilikalani-o-haililani: The sections in my
About Kekuhi page neatly describe each of my passions: hula, oli, music composition & performance, and Hawaiʻicology. That is, how we connect to the Hawaiʻi universe through the lens of ecology. I don't claim to be an ecologist as i have not earned that academic/scientific accolade. But i do LOVE the ideas, concepts and more so the practice of ecology and how we can experience that in dance, song, chant, and ritual. I work with groups in Hawaii conservation and teach how to reclaim our individual relationship to
aina (land
), kai(sea
), lani(heaven), vegetation, rock, and rain. I have had the honor of working with Hawaiʻiʻs conservation community in a statewide initiative called,
Ka Mauli Hou: Hawaii Conservation & Restoration Initiative.
I recently did a keynote during earth day 2015 at Brown University for their Interdisciplinary Stewardship seminar. The topic was:
Kino-lau, Embodying Ecology through Hula. FUN stuff!! I teach hula people, sciences, and whoever how to "be" this way.
I've returned to the performance stage after 10-years of "rest". I realized that my body needs that kind of vibration. My partners, Kaumakaiwa and Piilani-Kane (Shawn) Pimental is yet another level of growth in my performance consciousness.
I still work at the Hawaii Community College, coordinating the I Ola Haloa Center for Hawaii Life Styles.
I am the executive director at the
Edith Kanakaole Foundation...soon stepping on the side to allow others the opportunity. Two outstanding projects I am working on in this capacity is hosting the
Hachimanjingu from Kamakura in Hawaiʻi for an educational visit this year. The other cool project I'm doing is co-coordinating & facilitating a workshop in Feb of 2016 for global leaders/thinkers around the topic of "global
mauliola". That is how we approach one another and have a conversation around difficult issues.
Yup...oh, and I have 2-lovely
mo'opuna(grandchildren) and 2 young daughters at home who my husband and I thoroughly enjoy.
June: In a TedX talk, I loved it when you said, "If we stop dancing on the earth and if we stop going to the forest to pick - then we die. Then we go into total spiritual exile. Every movement is paired with movement in nature - with the elements. The hands are the wind. What are all the elements that the wind brings? Rain, clouds. What do the feet do? The feet mimics the heartbeat. it pounds on the earth to entice her. When we do the
uwehe - that entices the earth to open - crack open. When you
ami - nice full circles - entices cycles above you and below you to happen. We have to totally believe that we have that kind of connection. If everyone put themselves in that kind of place and know what is going on...." This is your hula
aiha'a practice where you are your environment and your environment is you right?
Kekuhi: RIGHT!
June: In addition to this being very Hawaiian, this is very zen. (I'm also a zen priest and teacher). Can you say more about this - your hula practice, the elements and your interrelationship?
Kekuhi: Yes. Hawaii world view does not distinguish between matter. We are all related, literally, physiologically, genealogically, biologically, and elementally. Although peculiar, i may have a bird or a rock or a shark or lave as an immediate family member. This carries into the hula practice. Hula
aiha'a is the true embodiment and the "be-ing" of matter and spirit of everyone I dance and/or chant about....so, really, i don't chant or dance ABOUT the eruption, I BECOME IT.
TO BE CONTINUED
Here's a youtube video of Kekuhi talking about Hula.
