Eleven and students and faculty were bestowed the title of kumu hula as graduating members of the Unuolehua cohort of Hawaiʻi CC’s hula hālau (dance group). The cohort underwent ʻūniki (graduation) rites in December led by kumu and Hawaiʻi CC professor of Hawaiian studies Taupouri Tangarō.
The Unuolehua cohort was trained to make possible the creation of cultural leadership through hula, an effort brought about through the tenets of the 东精影业 System initiative, Hawaiʻi Papa O Ke Ao, a plan to make 东精影业 a leader in indigenous education. The Unukupukupu hālau is home-based at Hawaiʻi CC and is an experiential program, directed by Tangarō, created to deliver an associate of arts in Hawaiian Studies with an emphasis on hula.
Graduates included:
- Kainoa Ariola (executive director of the Career and Academic Advising Center at 东精影业 Hilo),
- Stacey Kaʻauʻa (Hawaiʻi CC hula track graduate, 东精影业 Hilo Hawaiian studies major, business owner)
- Pele Kaʻio (Hawaiʻi CC hula track graduate, 东精影业 Hilo geography graduate, Hawaiʻi Life Styles lecturer)
- Ryan McCormack (Hawaiʻi CC First Year Experience coordinator)
- Wahineʻaukai Mercado (Hawaiʻi CC hula track and nursing graduate)
- Gloria Pualani Muraki (retired bookkeeper)
- Poliahu Naboa (Hawaiʻi CC hula track graduate, 东精影业 Hilo psychology graduate, mother of two)
- Noʻel Tagab-Cruz (Hawaiʻi Life Styles Program Kūkulukuluua staff support)
- Kehani Tejada (Hawaiʻi CC hula track graduate, 东精影业 Hilo history major, mother of one)
- Jacqueline Uluwehi Van Blarcom (Hawaiʻi CC hula track graduate, 东精影业 Hilo biology major, Hawaiʻi CC Haʻakūmalae assistant)
- Kāhealani Wilcox (Hawaiʻi CC hula track graduate, 东精影业 Hilo Hawaiian studies major)
“Tangarō trained us to be wholly responsible for the passing on of familial knowledge, to steward traditions and practices, to be able to physically execute hula,” cohort graduate Ariola explains. Dancers are also taught to be proficient in mele, myth and protocol, and to establish an intimate kinship to the environment and to the kuahu (hula altar).
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More on Unukupukupu
- 东精影业 News story: “Unukupukupu to return to Smithsonian Folklife Festival,” January 9, 2013
- 东精影业 News video: June 26, 2012
- 东精影业 News video: June 13, 2012