Several years ago, a group of friends in Hawaii started the “Live Aloha” movement to bring the kindness, patience and unity of the aloha spirit into the modern world.
A popular bumper sticker around the islands, Live Aloha was also the theme of the Hawaii Club’s 33rd annual Luau in McArthur Court Saturday night.
“For many, it’s like thinking of others before yourself, respect, kokua – which is like helping,” said University senior Sierra Nakea, the Hawaii Club’s Luau coordinator. “Living Aloha depends on (how) you want to interpret it.”
Throughout the event, Hawaii Club members appeared on a video screen talking about their personal definitions of living aloha, sharing the concept with University students.
The Luau is “to try and bring up the culture to show it to other people,” said Hawaii Club co-director Jake Chang.
In between video clips, groups of dancers performed traditional Hawaiian and Tahitian dances on the stage, which was decorated with plants flown in from Hawaii.
Luau History
| In ancient Hawaii, men and women were prohibited from eating together. Women and commoners were also forbidden from eating certain delicacies. In 1819, King Kamehameha II abolished these traditional religious practices, sitting down to eat with everyone in the first luau – a feast named for one of its dishes: taro plant leaves with chicken, baked in coconut milk, also referred to as luau. |
“Hula dancing has more of a flowing and softer kind of feel,” Chang said. “Tahitian has the more stereotypical hips flying everywhere; I’m really amazed by it.”
Nakea danced hula in Maika’i Ka ‘Oiwi O Ka’ala, a mele – the Hawaiian word for song – dedicated to the beauty of Mount Ka’ala on the island of Oahu.
“I didn’t get to see a lot of (the other performances), but overall, from what I hear, a lot of people really liked it,” she said.
Bookending the dances were Some Guys, a local Hawaiian-style cover band, and Ho’okoa, a reggae act from the Big Island.
Emma Burns, a University freshman from Maui, said the variety – males, females, co-ed and Tahitian – was the best aspect of the performances.
She added that the food was great.
“I was really excited to have poi,” she said. “I know everyone hates it, but I love it.”
Poi is the doughy result of mashing the stem of the Polynesian taro plant. Also included in the local Hawaiian-style dinner were rice; macaroni salad; shoyu chicken, which is marinated in soy sauce and pineapple juice; shredded kalua pork; and haupia, a coconut milk-based cake.
Blake Monroy, whose girlfriend is a University student, said he liked the shoyu chicken and the dessert best.
“That was the best cake I’ve ever had,” he said of the spongy pink guava cake. “Guava cake? Come on, man. I think I ate four pieces of it.”
Monroy, who is of Guatemalan descent, said he felt like a Hawaiian at the Luau.
“I thought it was great; it made me see a new perspective of a different culture of fellow Hawaiians,” he said. “They said we’re all brothers and sisters, and I really felt like I was part of that family.”
The Hawaii Club has been preparing for Luau for most of the year. Based on how full the tables were, Nakea thinks more people attended than last year; she said she’s happy everyone seemed to have fun.
Burns said, “I’m from Hawaii so it was nice to get a piece of where I hail from.”
She added that her personal definition of living aloha is mostly about kindness.
“Aloha, for me, is just being open and welcoming to everyone,” she said. “You’re just open and very nice to everyone, and you smile all the time. And you’re committed to the aina, the earth.”
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