PAHU NIU: THE HAWAIIAN DRUM
Some context:
As with most things these days, the average individual has little knowledge of (and probably as little interest in) some of the more esoteric aspects of our modern world’s more peripheral cultural objects. If that status quo is a given, consider for a moment how much less is known about truly archaic historical artifacts beyond the range of our functional day-to-day activities.
In Hawaii, although almost all visitors recognise that ‘Hula’ is a dance form unique to the Hawaiian Islands, very few tourists understand that Hula is more than just semi-naked young women swaying seductively for their benefit during gaudy ‘traditional’ luau feasts being staged for FOJ (“fresh off jet”, as one of my Molokai friends puts it) haole malihini (e.g. mainlanders) . Although the overt sexuality of beautiful young female bodies undulating to rhythmic music is not usually lost on even the dimmest male visitors, all too often that is all that registers in the typical awareness of the island visitor when viewing traditional Hawaiian dance.
In fact, Hawaiian Hula is a form of cultural expression of the utmost complexity, reaching back through the centuries to a time in the islands when history was recorded entirely by story and song, and passed along to succeeding generations by skilled individuals. As if to draw attention to that fact, there is a half-humorous admonishment to tourists that…
