November 1 through 3 at Pleasanton Fairgrounds dozens of hula ensembles converged for the annual Iā ‘Oe E Ka Lā Hula Competition, one of the area’s longest running festivals of Hula and Hawaiian culture. It is the oldest hula festival outside of Hawai’i. Men, women and children dressed in traditional and modern hula attire entertained large crowds with the expressive dance native to Hawaii. Great food and beautiful arts and crafts rounded out the event.
The festival and competition was sponsored by the Kumu Hula Association of Northern California, founded in 1978 by Ehulani “Aunty Ehu” Enoka Lum. This year’s celebration was dedicated to King David Kalāhaua, the 7th King of the Hawaiian Kingdom who reigned from 1874 to his death in 1891. Under pressure from missionaries, Queen Ka’ahumanu of Hawaii had banned public hula performance in 1830, but, at Kalāhaua’s coronation, hula was performed, and the dance form reentered public life to become an icon of Hawaiian culture.
After arriving in San Francisco in 1969 Autie Ehu wanted to introduce that Hawaiian culture to Californians and wanted Hawaiians to have a taste of home. She brought together the few scattered Hawaiians in the Bay Area into a community through producing hula events and presenting classes, inviting experts from Hawaii on the hula, the Hawaiian language, music, genealogy, food and more.
She held her first luau in her new home in 1970, then, later she produced events at Hayward’s Centennial Hall and the Hayward Plunge. After she and her husband Gordon Lum founded the Kumu Hula Association of Northern California, the growth in hula’s popularity and influx of Hawaiians to the area called for larger venues, and Kumu Hula eventually made the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton its annual home.
A Kumu Hula is a master teacher in the art of hula who leads a school or hālau and hula itself is the expression in movement of chants (oli) and songs (mele). Such schools teach not only dance but costuming, lei-making, chanting and singing, and the rituals and customs associated with the spiritual aspects of hula and its patron goddess, Laka. A Kumu Hula receives decades of training and is graduated in a uniki ceremony only when it is believed the student will use their knowledge responsibly.
Beloved Aunty Ehu passed away in 1991. After she died, the City of Hayward named April 20 “Ehulani Day” in honor of her contributions to the Hawaiian community. Today, the Kumu Hulu president is Aunty Ehu’s daughter Deanie Villiados. The organization also sponsors a May Day festival in Downtown Hayward, an event that lovers of Hawaiian culture should definitely not miss.
Kumu Hula Association
