Hawaiian trio Kulaiwi reconnect with 'separated' legacy through music
The award-winning trio, comprising Lehua Kalima Alvarez, Shawn Kekoa Pimenta and Pono Fernandez, had been described by a music critic as "blending song and storytelling with hula to honour Hawaiian culture and ancestry".
Pimenta said their songs and hula dances aimed to reconnect native Hawaiians to the aina (land).
"The way for us to reconnect is through music and hula," Pimenta said in the artistes' interview on the second day of the Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) in Santubong near here.
Kulaiwi is another group making their debut in this 28-year-old festival. The group's name literally means "the land where our ancestors' bones are buried".
Pimenta said by making the reconnection, native Hawaiians "can go back to our ancient chants, the music of our ancient people to rediscover what it means to be connected to aina, or land".
He said native Hawaiians had been separated from their culture for so long, and so music and dance were a very important way for them to not just learn by reading, but to experience as well.
Pimenta, from Kaneohe on the windward side of Oahu island, said Pono, Lehua and him took great pride and care of everything that their ancestors had left for them.
"And we strive to continue that legacy of our language, our culture through our songs and through our hula.
"We wouldn't be able to have those deep connections if it weren't for music and dance."
Pono summed it as a way of remembering, a way of connecting to the past and a way for them to be a bridge to the future.
"So the songs that we write, the hulas that we dance today that our peers have created will carry on so the future generations will understand the links."
Pono, like Pimenta, is also from Oahu while Lehua is from Hilo.
Kulaiwi released their album Native Lands in 2022, featuring 15 tracks comprising original and classic songs.
At the 45th annual Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts in 2022, they swept the Group of the Year, Album of the Year, Hawaiian Music Album of the Year and Hawaiian Engineering of the Year awards.
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