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Auntie Maria
Ha`aha`a
USA
1918 Posts |
 Posted - 02/18/2008 : 08:49:57 AM
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Amy Ku`uleialoha Stillman, Ph.D. was born/raised/educated in Hawai`i -- is a highly-acclaimed ethnomusicologist, currently at University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus. Lucky for me, she's also been a fountain of information and support with regard Hawaiian music and hula. I've had her "So You Want to Study Hula?" essay on the MELE.COM halau hula page for a few years now...helpful to those searching for a good instructor.
Amy's written another essay -- "On the Kuleana of a Kumu Hula" -- which has now been added to the MELE.COM halau hula page. Thought you might find it interesting...she pulls no punches!:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~akstill/Publications/KumuHulav4.htm
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Auntie Maria
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My "Aloha Kaua`i" radio show streams FREE online every Thu & Fri 7-9am (HST)
www.kkcr.org - Kaua`i Community Radio
"Like" Aloha Kauai on Facebook, for playlists and news/info about island music and musicians!
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2008 : 03:03:19 AM
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| Thanks for letting us know about this, Auntie Maria. Amy is a wonderful fountain of knowledge. With all her education and experience, she was out there with the rest of the students this weekend, doing those ami over and over and over. Aunty Mapu was the kumu and Amy deferred to her during the workshop. I learned so much, not only hula, language and history, but plenty of etiquette and proper behavior and respect. |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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Hula Rider
Lokahi
USA
215 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2008 : 07:07:54 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Auntie Maria
Amy Ku`uleialoha Stillman, Ph.D. was born/raised/educated in Hawai`i -- is a highly-acclaimed ethnomusicologist, currently at University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus. Lucky for me, she's also been a fountain of information and support with regard Hawaiian music and hula. I've had her "So You Want to Study Hula?" essay on the MELE.COM halau hula page for a few years now...helpful to those searching for a good instructor.
Amy's written another essay -- "On the Kuleana of a Kumu Hula" -- which has now been added to the MELE.COM halau hula page. Thought you might find it interesting...she pulls no punches!:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~akstill/Publications/KumuHulav4.htm
What an excellent article! Mahalo for posting the link!
Malama pono,
Leilehua |
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Mark
Ha`aha`a
USA
1628 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2008 : 10:27:53 AM
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Mahalo for posting the link.
This is a subject that has come up various times at the Aloha Camp. In the past, we have created specific classes, forums and discussions to address the subject of responsibility, both of a student to one's teacher, and of the teacher to the tradition. I have learned so much from Penny Martin's "Hawaiian Values" talks, from Liko Puha and Moana's weeklong talk stories, from Auntie Nona's expample, and many, many more. It is a vital question, and one with many dimensions.
Of course, you cannot always count on everyone who might benefit attending one of our classes-- or similar classes at other events-- so it is good that you have made this essay available. With your permission, I would like to link to it from the camp website.
A few questions are left unanswered. For example- exactly how is it that someone becomes a kumu? Can anyone who has learned the skills be considered a kumu hula, or does it require some sort of formal training and recognition? Is it appropriate from someone who has learned, say `ukulele or slack key, to be called a kumu? Is it OK to teach dances, chants, etc one has learned outside of a formal halau, at a workshop, say? When is a kumu just a teacher?
We all have so much to learn. As I said to Keola when we first started talking about slack key guitar so many years ago: It feels like I have dipped my toe in the ocean.
cheers,
Mark
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Auntie Maria
Ha`aha`a
USA
1918 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2008 : 10:39:41 AM
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Mark, contact Amy Stillman directly for permission to link to her stuffs.  Her email address is displayed on this page:
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/hawn.music/home
And while you have her undivided attention (uiha!), suggest topics to her for future writings, please. She's open to suggestions, though her schedule may not permit an immediate article to be forthcoming. She'll get to it, eventually!
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Auntie Maria
===================
My "Aloha Kaua`i" radio show streams FREE online every Thu & Fri 7-9am (HST)
www.kkcr.org - Kaua`i Community Radio
"Like" Aloha Kauai on Facebook, for playlists and news/info about island music and musicians!
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noeau
Ha`aha`a
USA
1105 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2008 : 10:49:06 AM
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| These thoughts may also be applied to the musician. We all should be diligent in applying proper protocols when we play a mele. It does honor the song writer as well as respect the content of the song. We take certain poetic license as it were in an interpretation of a number but always with respect to the meaning of the song in the first place. That is what I have tried to express in the past when I have said we must be Hawaiian when we play music. It encompasses an entire culture that reached back to time immemorial and honors our geneology. Do not misunderstand this to mean that one must be ethnically Hawaiian. I just mean that if we utilize the aforementioned suggestions in the article we end up putting our best into the work we do. |
No'eau, eia au he mea pa'ani wale nō. |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2008 : 11:20:10 AM
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Ummm, I am feeling funny about posting here ('cause this can get to be a can of worms), but I think the whole issue about who can be a kumu hula arose several years ago when more than one halau "kumu" won an event at MM, although not ever having gone through the formal process (Sarah and I were there that year) -
ʻū.niki
nvi. Graduation exercises, as for hula, lua fighting, and other ancient arts (probably related to niki, to tie, as the knowledge was bound to the student).
There was also the notoriety of the behavior of a "kumu", which blew quite a few of Dr. Stillman's points out of the water, who was first ostracised by the hula community (and the whole country, for a while), but, for one reason or another, later got back into the fold.
As for other art forms such as slack key, I can't imagine any "official" process that exists.
...Reid |
Edited by - Reid on 02/19/2008 11:49:35 AM |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2008 : 11:38:20 AM
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Mapuana de Silva spoke at length on what happens to have someone become a kumu hula. There are progressive steps that go from being haumana to learning to chant and learning to play ipu and other instruments. There has to be expertise in the language, history, story behind the mele, kaona. There has to be expertise in proper protocols, in using plants, flowers, leaves, buds, vines, etc., and the proper respect for the `aina in taking the plant materials. After all that, your kumu MAY let you become a "master" student, if you are up to it and if he/she believes that you have the right skills, knowledges, abilities and temperment. To have an 'uniki is more than just a series of activities and ceremonies to "graduate" you. It is a blessing from the kumu and the kumu before, and the kumu before than, and so on, that you will carry the traditions forth in a pono way. Just because you are technically adept at hula, language and music, does not mean you can call yourself kumu. If you do, you aren't fooling anyone but yourself. If you are meant to be a kumu, your kumu will tell you. Aunty Mapu has a 6 year program for students to become "master" dancers. You must apply. You must commit yourself, not just time and financial, but spiritually as well. The halau becomes your extended family and the kumu is the head of that family.
Leilehua, Amy, and other hula experts on this forum can better share their understanding of being a "kumu". |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
Edited by - wcerto on 02/19/2008 11:38:37 AM |
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hwnmusiclives
`Olu`olu
USA
580 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2008 : 12:41:07 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Reid
There was also the notoriety of the behavior of a "kumu", which blew quite a few of Dr. Stillman's points out of the water, who was first ostracised by the hula community (and the whole country, for a while), but, for one reason or another, later got back into the fold.
I thought we might never hear about this again. Or, at least, I had hoped we wouldn't. But I was thinking the same thing you were - that such behavior is not in keeping with Stillman's valid points about the responsibilities of the kumu hula.
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Join me for the history of Hawaiian music and its musicians at Ho`olohe Hou at www.hoolohehou.org. |
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kuulei88
Akahai
USA
75 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2008 : 2:06:52 PM
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Aloha everyone, and thanks for engaging. The piece is posted publicly, and anyone is welcome to link to it, although I apologize for the fact that our mainframe system doesn't display the diacriticals properly. Please note that I purposefully did not write about 'uniki--I even wrote that "the specifics of that process belong solely to those responsible for ensuring its integrity." That said, we should remember that the 'uniki process was not widely available until after Aunty Maiki Aiu Lake started graduating classes of kumu hula. That means there are 2 or even 3 generations of teachers who have been--and still are--out there teaching and performing hula mindfully and respectfully, who did not have the option of going through the kind of 'uniki that is all the rage right now. There are many teachers who have not undergone a formal 'uniki, yet they have walked the walk, and have my respect and admiration. And just because someone has gone through a formal 'uniki, that does not guarantee that that graduate possesses a firm command of the knowledge that is out there. Personally I like to think of the term "kumu" (lower case k) broadly, in the sense of "source." It is a humbling thought that someone who is experienced has the potential to be a source to someone just starting out, or is less experienced. We are all students on the path of life, and sometimes lessons come from unexpected places if we are open to them.
na'u no,
amy k. |
amy k |
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Kaiulani
Akahai
77 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2008 : 2:48:21 PM
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Aloha Kakou and Mahalo Amy,
This is an extremely controversial subject and I appreciate the chance to speak my mind.I am 49 years old. I have been studying, performing and teaching Hula and the Hawaiian Culture for 44 years on all different levels including universities.. And yes...I do consider myself a Kumu hula. My Kumu Camille blessed me to "carry on" in 1980 (when I was 21). I took this very seriously. I know that there is ALWAY...ALWAYS more to learn. Any true Kumu hula knows this. So I am in constant research mode. I have been looked down upon by a few island born Kumu hula...BUT not by all....far from it. My true hula Ohana...(Hawaiian and NON)know my heart and know what I do is pono.
I founded a Center for Hawaiian Studies & Performing Arts in Rochester, NY... www.GalleryKauai.com. My husband also teaches Slack Key & Ukulele...all pono. I turn my face when I come across narrow-minded people (Hawaiian or NON)who do not understand. And yet the Kumu in me turns to face them to explain the importance..and that my heart and soul and all my knowledge work together to perpetuate my hanai Hawaiian culture. I walk the walk every day...in Aloha.
Mahalo for listening...
Ka'iulani |
Me Ke Aloha,
Ka'iulani
www.GalleryKauai.com |
Edited by - Kaiulani on 02/20/2008 02:06:28 AM |
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