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Many Kānaka Maoli however praised the event as an important part of efforts at reviving a part of their culture that detailed their history, language, and customs. Many in the missionary crowd were appalled and the man who printed the hula program was arrested for indecency. Significantly, King David Kalākaua had three days of hula performed at his grand coronation in 1883. However, several Mō‘ī (sovereign) continued to have hula performed including Kauikeaouli, Kameameha III and Lota Kapuāiwa, Kamehameha IV.
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HAWAII MUSIC GOURD LICENSE
Through much of the 1800s, public exhibitions of hula required a license and were only allowed to be legally performed in Lāhainā and Honolulu, two large seaport towns catering to foreign arrivals. They labeled the dance immoral and worked to ban the practice.Īnd so it remained for a time. The missionaries deemed hula a paganistic, sexually deviant, and sacrilegious practice. Hula honored native Akua (Gods), it glorified Maoli history, leaders, and practices, and hula reaffirmed the importance of sexuality and procreation in the maintenance of life. This Native art encapsulated all those aspects of Maoli culture that they abhorred. The hula, like many of the cultural practices of Kānaka Maoli, was misunderstood by the Protestant missionaries that arrived in Hawai‘i. It was the ho‘opa‘a, or chanter that beat the ipu heke in order to keep the rhythm. This was central to the experience as hula is a logo-genic (lyric based) art with the motions of the dancer simply providing assistance in translating the story. It is believed that prior to the introduction of the pahu, it was the ipu heke (double-gourd drum) that provided the rhythmic accompaniment to the oli (chant). La‘amaikahiki is credited with bringing the sharkskin drum to Hawai‘i from Tahiti. New instruments were added to the dance, one of which was the pahu (drum). Like all cultural practices, hula was not a static art.