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them first so they can come here and participate with us. It is a call out to all of our spirit world to come and sit with us in ceremony and say you are welcome here because you have had a relationship here, as in the case today with brother Ab” (the late Kumu Ab Valencia, who taught and performed with his hālau at the park for years). “What I did today was to call out to them to ask how I can be used to interpret for the people that which I receive, and to come and see the work that we have done. And actually we know that their receiving is a true confirmation because the ua [rain] is falling down now, where five minutes ago it wasn’t. “I have a very strong connection with the elements. I am constantly looking at and feeling the wind, constantly looking at the rain, seeing what kind of rain is falling down. Falling now is the pu‘ulena rain—not a very hard, hard rain, but a very welcoming rain that is polishing off, making sure that everything is clean for the hale noa project that has just been completed for our kumu hula and hālau to prepare appropriately in mind, body and spirit as they get ready to perform on the pā. “I had to grow into the spirit of being a chanter,” he says. “At first my teachers told me told me that I wasn’t ready. You need to be ready, to be poised, cognizant and understanding to this art because it’s work to pray, work to ask, work to chant and prepare the right vocabulary to have the oli and your voice reach the other side. If not, they have no reason to come and visit you. It has to come from the heart, from the inside. “This is a very important time for our people to understand that those who are trained in hula or oli or any of the arts can tell if you have the spirit or not. If I hear a chant and the chanting is not done appropriately, I can tell because I’ve been there. This is not a time to fool around; this is a time to embrace, to understand and come to a place where we all can meet. It is not a performance; you may think it is, but how the chanter views what they do is their responsibility. “Oli can go with hula,” he says, “but also with protocol. Oli is a form of ho‘okupu, so whenever you greet or don’t have a physical ho‘okupu, you can use your voice as a form of ho‘okupu.” Kumu Kaho‘okele is often asked to do blessings in the community. He says it is now the majority of his work. He may name babies, and his forté is to perform “a hui hou chants” (funeral chants that mean “until we meet again”). He often composes them particularly for the one who has passed. That is what he is preparing to do this day as we say “A hui hou.” The next time you hear oli, listen not only to the words but try to pick up the meaning with your heart as you feel the energy of the chanter and the spirit surrounding him or her. For more ‘ike (knowledge), continue to follow Kumu Keala Ching’s compositions in each issue of Ke Ola Magazine (see page 9 of this issue). They, too, may be spoken as oli, and contain ample kaona for you to discover and decipher. ■
For more info: kumukahi.org https://apps.ksbe.edu/olelo/learning-place/ Journal of William Ellis: A Narrative of an 1823 Tour Through Hawai‘i