 Good evening. Hi everybody. Welcome and Aloha. My name is Ileana and I am a librarian for the San Francisco Public Library. We are so happy you're here with us to celebrate Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month for youth and families with the Hula presentation and performance by Halao Haakea Okinoki, zooming all the way in from Hilo, Hawaii and throughout the United States, including San Francisco. Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge that I am here in San Francisco, California on the unceded land of the Ramatush Ohlone peoples. The Ramatush Ohlone peoples still work, play and live on these lands in addition to the cultural and historic contributions and gifts they've offered. To learn more about the land you are on, please visit the link in the chat. This presentation is part of our Asian American Pacific Islander program series in which we celebrate AAPI history, culture and heritage, a celebration that we believe should take place not only during May, but all year round. Thank you for joining us to continue understanding, respecting and celebrating the diverse Asian American and Pacific Islander histories and cultures from San Francisco and beyond. Check out our webpage of the San Francisco Public Library to see upcoming events, watch events you may have missed or find great books by AAPI authors and illustrators and more. Before we start, a huge thanks Mahalo to the friends of the San Francisco Public Library for their generous support of this special series. We would not be able to do this without them. I would like to welcome Kumu Paul Neves and Halao Haakea Okinoki. Halao Haakea Okinoki is the second expression of the teachings of Kumu Paul Neves. Nahaumana, his students, are from Hilo, Hawaii, San Francisco, California, Kyoto, Japan and other parts of the United States. Today you're going to learn about Queen Lily Uokulani, her reign as the final monarch of the Kingdom of Kauai, her connection to San Francisco and the love that she had for her community and the children of the world with music and cultural dances of Kauai. Participation is strongly encouraged and we feel free to connect with the Halao on their website and Facebook links that will be in the chat. I would love to welcome Kumu Paul Neves to talk a little bit about what he's here for today. Aloha. Thank you, Ileana. I am a Kumu Hula, or a master of hula dance. Kumu means source or tree. And this is a very new thing to teach by, in this manner for me and for my Halao, but it's necessary in these times that we use those educational opportunities to communicate. Rather than not communicate, we may distance ourselves physically, but that does not mean we cannot get closer educationally. And so we are going to really ask you, the listener, the watcher, to see this as something in your living room, something that's close to you, something that we want to interface with you today. I would like to, you saw the first picture you saw was the picture of my Halao. Halao is a hula school. Ha is the breath. Lao is like the leaf or a tea leaf. The extension of the breath of that breath of life. I as the Kumu, I'm in charge of exuding a spirit to my homana. How is tree? Mana is spirit to my spirits, and they carry on my work there. And in this case, in San Francisco. The first picture of the Halao is in an area just below Rob Hill in the Golden Gate Park of the city of San Francisco. We have gone there to support the Olone people when they have their arbor, their celebrations of life there. And they've been very stunning and very touching. The second pic that I want to bring your notice to is the pic of Princess well, Queen Lili Okolani and King David Kalakoa. King David Kalakoa was the last male heir of the Hawaiian kingdom. King David Kalakoa, just to let you folks know passed away in San Francisco in 1891. His body was laid in state at Grace Cathedral. And at that time, and it's not been recorded, that a larger service has ever been, or a larger turnout for a service for a head of state was for King David. His body was taken back to Honolulu for burial. But there was like a hundred thousand people that were there that day. King David Kalakoa revitalized the hula. He's the one that had Iulani Palace in Honolulu Bill. And the revitalization of the hula was his heart's desire. And so even today we say that hula is the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people. And that's a quote from his majesty, the king. He was the first modern monarch to circumvent the world. As a matter of fact, the first one in recorded history that we know of that went all the way around the world. And then unfortunately passed away in 1891. Passed the throne to his sister, Princess Lili Okolani Dominus, the queen who's in the second photograph, that second quote is in the queen. That is an official portrait painting of Her Majesty, probably around 1892, which was the time of my grandfather's birth. My father was born the same year that the queen was installed as the queen. One of her favorite songs most people hear the tune, Aloha Oi. She wrote in Mono Willy Valley. It's a love song. And it was performed by the Royal Hawaiian Band in San Francisco. And it was written in 1878 at Mono Willy, which is a valley of Windward O'ahu, which you see clearly these days from the Pali Lookout. The queen was a prolific writer of songs, pianist. She conducted choirs. Her greatest love were children. She didn't have her own children. She adopted children. And her whole estate upon her passing was left to orphan children and then expanded to any children that were in financial hardship. So her whole estate to this day is the Lili Okalani Trust helps thousands and thousands and thousands of people. The queen endured one of the most difficult times in Hawaiian history. And that was the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom, our country, with a conspiracy of the United States, the president of the United States, not the executive of the United States, the minister, Stevens, and with conspirators within the Hawaiian kingdom, traders to the queen. And they conspired to bring the USS Boston, a first class battleship of that time, and United States Marines to land in Pearl Harbor, to land in, excuse me, Honolulu Harbor, and march upon the palace, force the queen from her throne, force her to abdicate, and set up machine guns in troops, 300 Marines, and declared that Hawaii was no longer independent, that it was under the United States military, and therefore the queen was put on trial in her own country for treason. It was a great injustice, not known by many Americans. So if there are Americans listening in, I'd behoove you to learn the true history of Hawaii and what we struggle with, even to this day. But the queen was approached by the men of that day, her royal household troops, and people loyal that let us resist the Americans, of which they probably could have, but the queen knew better that America had a history of dealing with native people that was not a peaceful history. So she said, no, stand down, and do not lay hands upon them. And they will come to realize, like the British before them, that the treaty of friendship between the United States and the Hawaiian kingdom was good, and that treaty would compel the United States to return to their ships and return her to the throne. But history tells us, and we are living that history, that the Americans did not return and instead recognized the rebel government of the 13, or the committee of 13, who were all white men, male businessmen and recognized them as a legitimate provisional government and then forced upon the islands of republic in 1894. And then that republic, they had that republic give Hawaii to the United States. We know that that annexation was illegal, because it's against American law and international law, that a joint session of Congress does not have the right to extinguish a treaty. But all of that happened, and the reality of it is today. The next pictures we have are really what we want to get to is the song. One song was written by a Helen Prendergast, and it was written around 1896, 1897. And that's Mrs. Prendergast. She was a loyal follower of the Queen. She grabbed her guitar and gatherings were banned, but she still managed to gather enough Hawaiians out with listen. And she wrote the song called Kaulana Napua. Kaulana, famous, Napua, the flowers. Famous are the flowers. And this song was meant for adults. It was meant for the adult population. You are the flowers of Hawaii. And what she did was she mentions in that song the rally around your chiefs as their chiefs rally around the Queen. Hawaii had been four kingdoms, and all of those chiefs were united by the great Kamehameha in 1819. So anyway, she asked them to rally. So the chiefly lines of Kauai and Mano, the chiefly lines of Oahu and Kakuyeva, chiefly lines of Kona and Maui, and the chiefly lines of the great Moku o Keave, the Keave lines. And this was her song for adults. And that song was so special, it was not sung regularly. As a matter of fact, up to 1966, it was never danced in hula until the Kamehameha schools under the direction of my kumus, kumo, anti-Nona beamer, stood for the first time in that school and made motion in hula to Kaulana Napua. To this day, Kaulana Napua is still, you know, you can't mess with that song. Please don't make it Hawaiian. Please don't make it with a rock beat. It is almost our song of defiance and honor. The next person you see is a person named Malia Craver. Anti-Malia, I knew personally. 25 years ago, about 25 years ago, she wrote this song called Pu'anani'a U'awa'i, The Pretty Flowers of Hawaii. And she writes this song to inspire children. Anti-Malia worked at the Lilio Kalani Trust, the trust of the queen, and gave her heart and soul to that trust. And this beautiful picture of her with this child really epitomizes who Anti was. And she writes this song to inspire the children of Hawaii. Because the adults, you know, we adults, we get into a lot of political discussions. But children, the new flowers, they're mixed. We have children from all across the world now in Hawaii. And she's still telling them as children, grow up to be those great fragrances, grow up to be that great mixture. But don't forget our queen. Don't forget the queen that made it so you can flower and you can have fragrance and you could be worn around, you know, a lay is around your neck. And they say when we were children, to put a child around your neck, was the greatest lay you could have is to have them on your shoulders with their feet around your neck. And so these children become the Pu'anani'a U'awa'i of today. And she wrote that 25 years ago, and I know there's young people that are 25 years ago that are in the marches that that are led by people who still raise up the memory of Queen Llew Kalani, that we would, we the Hawaiian people would rise again. And so these two mele, or songs, my music group, Komaka Kino, here in the Halau and Hilo, we decided to put the both songs together. And it was to bring the old with the new, but the same purpose. The ones that are already have become our kupuna or ancestors of spirit with those who are the children of the spirit of today. And so I hope you like it. I want you to try it right off the bat. You're going to have three shots to do it with us. They are doing it hula noho, which is the sit down style of hula. Not all hula is done standing. This is a style. And so this hula, this song is done standing, but for the purpose of zoom, and because we want to reach you, we do it hula noho. So here we go. This is the song we call lili umede, motions to try these motions to dance with us. If you dance with us, you bring the spirit of the Queen alive. You know, technology is technology, but it does not replace the heart nor does it create the heart. So when you move your body, this is not synchronized swimming. These are the dances of the heart. We'll leave synchronized swimming for the Olympics. We'll leave hula. Remember, the King said it is the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people, and that's how hula lives. So when we remember the Queen, we remember these motions. We remember that through these motions, we are beckoning her, her presence, her peacefulness, you know. She died November 11th, 1917. November 11th is Veterans Day, and when I celebrate Veterans Day, I celebrate her. She was my commander in chief, and her order was no war. Stand down. I'm very proud, and that love she had for children, you know, our ali, they became of status not by how many medals they had or how much land they had, but by their generosity to their people. I want to just kind of call out some of these symbols. I don't know if you've noticed these symbols, but in every one of the dancer's pictures, you should see the Hawaiian flag, which is the national flag of the Hawaiian kingdom. The state borrows it. We allow them to borrow it, but that was not the flag of the state, nor the flag of the Republic. It was the flag of the Hawaiian kingdom, an independent country with treaties with the United States and almost 80 other countries in the world. You will also see in around a candle, the couple of the Kalakaua dynasty, which is Kalakaua in Kuilu Kalani, and also Prince Kuhil, who followed the Kuilu Kalani. Princess Kuhilani was the torch that burned by day, and so whenever they were present, someone carried this sacred torch, and so that candle symbolizes their torch. And also you see us wearing beautiful yellow. I'm wearing the yellow, that was made of feathers. The yellow, which is tied on my left side, because my kumus tie on the left, and students tie on the right. Some kumus say just the opposite. That's why hula is not a boring art. We make sure that we do as we wish as we see it. So my how mana, again, mana is spirit. How is the bark? The bark of the kumu, the tree. My spirit branches all are adorned in the yellow, and they're wearing their colors, they're red. The red and the yellow are the colors of the ali'i, of the high chiefs. So thank you so much for doing that. And they also have some ali'i haku on their ali'i, excuse me, ali'i of fern, and it comes from San Francisco and Wisconsin. I'll have to make sure they did. So that's because they're hula people. And if they hold their wrists up, you'll see the kukui on their wrists, the kupe'e. Kukui is a black seed that comes from the, we call the candle nut tree, put four of them together from a green seed. You light, you light it, and it will give you two hours of light. It was our candle. And so it is called the kukui, and kukui is a white word for light. They also wear that kukui and double weave on their fore, that's a le'i po'o, the le'i, the le'i lima, or lima, or the kupe'e. Okay? I got it all. Good. I was taught that hula is storytelling. Hula is storytelling. Other people say, oh no, hula says that's why we're not a boring people. Yeah. So please don't ask me a question, but my kumu said that's why we're not a boring people. Keep what you learned in dir dir kumu in your hula house. All knowledge is not shared out of one house. The knowledge that was shared by Auntie Nona was hula is a story, and we should continue telling the stories. So it's kind of a challenge today, because we tell stories with our fingers, huh? With our, with our cell phones. Hula tells story with the heart. Heart to heart, then face to face, from the heart, from the face. Okay? So try this again. We're going to do this the second time. Okay? Oh, and by the way, there's men out there watching. Remember, hula tradition, it was the men who danced first. Having seen, so having so much women, our ancient ancestors were going, where are the men? Because the men danced first. And so, please men, please let us do the gestures together. The gestures to li li u me li ma al il wa manava mako ko. Did you try? I hope you tried, because you know, that takes a lot of work. They're doing a beautiful rendition of this honor of the queen. I wanted to see these slides. This is the, is this a picture of Queen Kapiolani, who seated, looking straight ahead, and the then Princess Nilio Kalani, on their way to Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887. During this reign of our monarchs, we were very close to England, as you see the British flag in our national flag. God's daughter of Queen Victoria was Queen Nilio Kalani's niece, Princess Kapiolani, who would have been the queen if the monarchy had not been overthrown by the United States and the conspiracy. Queen Victoria was one of the most famous monarchs of the British Empire. And we were very much a part of that. Some things I want you to know about Queen Nilio Kalani. She traveled, of course, she traveled to England, but she also went to school at Mills College in the Bay Area. And if you go to Mills College in Oakland, in the main street there, because I've seen it, is Kapiolani Street in Oakland. Right in the middle of the campus, there's Kapiolani Street. It's so nice to see a Hawaiian name on a street name when you're in California. But the legacy of the monarchy, the legacy of the Queen, her pride, her accomplishments are well known, not only, like I said before, her music and all that, but what she stood for. In those days, women were not regarded as great leaders. Of course, Victoria was through that upside down on its head. Right? But Queen Nilio Kalani was a tough monarch. She ruled in the toughest of times when women were not given that respect even to this day. Women still have to fight for the right to share this planet with men. In the Hawaiian culture, everything you inherit is from the maternal side, from the woman. So we know that term Mother Earth way before it was vogue. And so we look with pride at the accomplishments and the legacy of the Queen. I wanted you to know, let me see my notes. Yeah, I think I want to tell you about what I'm wearing. I will hope that you can see it. But this is a lay, this is not, this is a little palawa made from whale. The high chiefs of the order of the Hawaiian people wore them, especially on this island of Hawaii. I am a member of the Royal Order of Kamehameha and have been so for 30, 32 years this year. My grandfather was a member of the order. He was born in the kingdom in 1892. The Royal Order of Kamehameha takes its reflection from the order of Kamehameha that was created by the fifth Kamehameha in 1865. He was a monarch that preceded Queen Nilio Kalani. I think he was four monarchs before him. No, yeah, Kalakawa, Nilio, three, three before the Queen, Nilio Kalani. So the order of Kamehameha was created to ensure strength in the Hawaiian kingdom and to rally our people to never forget who we are who created us. And we are active even to this day. So I wanted to make sure that you saw that we usually wore a tie with the royal insignia on it. We wear black suits even as hot as this is in Hawaii because the tradition was to wear black at night so the Americans would not know when we are meeting because we were secret. We went underground during the overthrow and we did not resurface publicly till 1994. We stayed underground for a hundred years and we still met, my grandfather met, all of us met, but we made sure that certain things that we did were not known to the general public. So if you have any now questions, let Ileana know. I want to thank you and we're going to take some questions I think and then we're going to end with it during the third time, right? We got it, okay. So you can ask questions and I can get out of the suit because it's hot. There is so much love and appreciation in the chat right now. There are folks watching from New York throughout California, the area. I'm sure Hawaii is there as well. Just a ton, a ton of love. I have a question that I think some folks may also have, but what is practicing look like in a Zoom world with Halau that's spread out and even in the same city that you can't see each other? So that's kind of a softball question while we wait. Well different cities in Kyoto in Japan, they distance themselves and they still come once they still come, but their dojos are big for our students. We only have 20 students there, so they can separate. We in Hilo, we meet. COVID is not as bad in Hawaii, please. That doesn't mean you come here without a mask. Take your shots, please. Okay, we can't run away. We're in the middle of the Pacific. So we meet at distance. We wear our masks. As a matter of fact, we put these things on. That's the mask of the order of commandment. We have a stylized mask, but I don't think in San Francisco they meet together because the situation there calls you not to, but as soon as you are, I will definitely be flying and we will have those sweaty practices that we're so desired to have and have missed for so long. So it really adjusts from people, but you know, I try to tell them put your arms out and make a circle. That's your circle. That's your circle of protection, that distance. So nobody comes in your circle if you made a circle. So unless you have that space, don't do it. If you could do it in a park, do it. You know, we go down to the beaches. Over here, I see the halos practicing. Mary Monarch's still going to happen, you know, this year. I think it's crazy, but you know, virtually it's gorgeous, right? Virtually it's gorgeous. We have to be, my love for you. Bono is the word. Be safe. Be safe. We have a couple more questions that have come in. So one question, has Kumu Paul been practicing since childhood? You know, I was always surrounded by Hula. My mother and father would get up and dance Hula, but I don't think they really had formalized training. My sister Monica was a lead performer and dancer. She went naked at nine years old in 1943. So she was a Hula dancer when we were born. She was in and she was also in the Tonga Room downtown San Francisco. She was the feature dancer there in the fifties. The lady's still alive and she still dances Hula. I have it on film, you know. I formally began Hula in Las Vegas of all places because I was working for the airlines in 1979. So there's not a month that has passed by in my life since 19. I think it was like May of 1979 till today, you know. So that's a little bit of time. It was almost 45 years. Yeah. Good question. Are there any questions about how can we give money to you? No, next question is. All right, then scratch that next question. Actually, the next question I think is interesting for a lot of folks because it may be brand new to them, but how does a kumu become a kumu? Again, a different halau have different their po kumu or their kumu that organizes them follows different hula houses have different traditions. Our tradition was from Mrs. Beamer pretty much and it was a very intimate, very quiet, very few people really about trying to understand your love of the land, your love of the people your willingness to your willingness to be a person that loves people. I mean, don't do this. If you don't like kids, don't do this. If you're impatient, do it. You need it. Yeah. But if you don't like this or you don't like, you know, if you have a problem with people, my goodness, don't be a kumu. I would say don't even be a dancer. Yeah. So in our house, it was more about love and it was, I was my kumu's first kumu. He was Uniki or graduated in 1968 and I became his first kumu in 1999. So it took him quite a few years before he said, I want this one to carry on for me. You know, I have since then created a few kumu's of five to date because I feel the sense of urgency for our teaching. Like I said, you know, that's a good question. You need to ask other kumu's. I really, when my kumu said, oh, I want you to be a kumu, you're crazy. You guys are poor all the time. You have these great dreams that you see and then the next day you're going like, what do we eat? You know what I mean? It's a life of love. The food is the love. The enjoyment are the people I'm looking at. My enjoyment is to love these women and their families and their ohannas and have them love back and see what we can do with hula for somebody to make their life better and tell some stars. That's the way it was for us and that's the way I'm making kumu's. You know, you might be the best. It's not about the best dancer. It's not about that. It's not about awards, not for us. It might be for somebody. Ours is just do this. A lot of love and send money. Next question. These are great and I just have to reiterate there's just so much love in the chat. I think goosebumps were happening for plenty folks as the dancers were dancing, as the music was playing so I think we just really appreciate each other and appreciate that. We don't have any other questions that are coming in but I do want to offer up the information of your Facebook. Your website will be in our chat so folks can follow you all there please follow. This will be up so folks can rewatch this and share. There's a question. Oh there's another question. Yeah, it says what is the most, what did you say it? Say it. Okay, I'll say it. What one aspect of Hawaiian culture do you think is the most important to share with the world right now? And there's another question too but we'll start with that one. I share four when I teach. The first is aloha. Unconditional love and include yourself in that. Unconditional love of self. Unconditional love. No judgments. Yeah, unconditional love aloha. True aloha. Yeah, mahalo. Yeah, we know it. Most people know it as thank you. It is actually another word for admiration. To admire the day, give thanks for everything you receive and then take that and give it. It's not about hoarding goods and material wealth. Mahalo is the exchange of the aloha. Yeah, the third value is ohana. Hana is to work. Work hard. Hula is not for lazy people. You want to be lazy. Stay home. It's for hardworking people, not just to dance, but to perform, to help people that need help. So ohana, which is extended family. Yeah, Hawaiians put oh in front of Hana, which makes ohana almost like a person, a being to work as a family unit, to struggle sometimes, to do things for people. Like what I just did with my student. The last value is lokahi, unity. And I really mean this because we Hawaiians, we are good at opinions and so should we be. But there comes a time when we're going to have to do what the queen said. There will come a time when the United States will understand that it made a mistake. And they did. In 1993, they said, we're sorry. We did it. We were the guys in the crime. Now is the time for us to unify to say, thank you for your sorrow. Good, let us help you with the solution. Yeah, took them a hundred years to say they're sorry. Might take us a hundred years to, you know, to build the ship to get out of here, right? So, so lokahi, you come. I know in San Francisco, man, they come right off California Street, you know, they come frazzled, huh? Whatever happened to them happened. And, you know, I just sit there, I've come in from Hawaii and I sit there and I just listened to the latest cost of cars, how much a donut went up, why they want to strangle their boss. Uh, you know, the warriors lost or whatever, they're coming right from the hood, but they need that time because we cannot do aloha until there's lokahi. There's unity and we cannot do tomorrow until we have unity, then we go on. So, those four values, there's many more, but I just, I think those four are the most. Mahalo, ohana and lokahi to me are the most meaningful. Go. Fantastic question. So, thanks for getting that in and thanks for answering. One other one, can women become kumus? There's too many women kumus. Of course, of course, the most beautiful hula is from women and I must say, I must say, my teacher was a gay man and taught me and you know hula is all about balance between your masculine authority and your female authority. That's why when we, when we put our hands together like this, dancers, can you do that? That when you put their hands together like that, that is who is their right side. Hina is their left. Yeah. And that brings balance to the person. Men, now just think men had to do this first. Who needs their feminine balance more in the world? Yeah, the guys, the guys, they think it's all about armchair football. No, it's about being in balance with their partners, with their other people, with their land, with people, with the world. You know, it's not a male world. It's not. It's a world made by God for people, both sides. So, women, yes, my auntie Nona was just a fabulous, fabulous female teacher who understood that absolutely. And Kahoone was her, her protege, I would say, in dance, my kumu and he was gay. And me, I'm normal with a lot of edges. And my kumos, I'm very proud of the ones that I've made kumos so far. To this point, they're all female, but soon, probably next year, for the first time, the three males, my son, Namaka, and my son, Kinogi, Namaka, his hula brother, and Kimo, his hula brother. I will make those three kumu to take over the halal for me. It's time for me to go on, write books, get thicker glasses, and collect all those gold bars you've been burying for me. I just can't believe they're right in my backyard. But they're good questions. Those are good questions. I wanted to thank the other kumos that do their work in San Francisco and in the U.S., on the U.S. continent, I always think we're doing, you know, I was born in the city, you know, you can say it's just like Hawaii, just like Hawaii. It ain't Hawaii, but the heart is Hawaii. That's why it's so hard to teach Allah, where the general population maybe doesn't understand like that, you know. And so I just want to do a shout out for all those kumos, North, Southern California, all across the U.S. and across the other parts of the world that try to continue this idea of aloha and seeing Hawaii in that way it should be seen. We fight here at home. It's a political fight. The halal stand and rise too. You know, it's not for the weak-hearted, but we stand in aloha. We stand in gratitude in mahalo. We stand as ohana and we stand in unity. That's the only way we're going to get justice because the queen was correct. You know, stand down. Do not kill. Do not bring blood. That was, um, that was so wise. We are all here today doing what we're doing because of that great mahalo or thought the queen had on the spur of the moment. She had to act and she said gentlemen, stand down. The United States, they'll get it. It took them 100 years and it'll probably take them 100 years to pack it up, pick it up, and get out. They still don't think they have to do that, but things take time. The Jews waited. The Chinese waited. Hawaiians, we can wait a little while and have fun. You know, but thank you so much, um, Eliana. I'm supposed to say thank you all. Eliana's my niece, by the way. She's trying to hide that fact from most adults. Her father is one of my older brothers, one of my 10 older brothers. Can you imagine? So, um, I'm proud of all 10 of them, especially the, um, message Rard. Her father is my, my link to the San Francisco giants and 49ers and to the goings on of San Francisco. Um, but, but thank you. I think we need to get to the song, you know? Okay. We need to get to the song and then, okay. Thank you everybody. Everybody that's out there, dance the song, practice it in the shower. Mahalo nui, aloha.