Culture Fair: Diving into Diversity

Human history has seen countless unique cultures rise to prominence and leave their mark on the world. On Feb. 22, students and staff of Mililani High School gathered on campus to educate one another on various cultures, with some perhaps less typically recognized than others. This event known as the Culture Fair allowed both students and teachers alike to create booths and share facts and knowledge about different cultures in the BC lawn area, along with multiple food trucks present nearby and performances carried out.

“So I hope that the students who come to all the booths enjoy their time and they learn something new,” said senior Kamryn Lapinid, the Japanese National Honor Society president and the the Culture Fair supervisor. “As a club, I believe that the purpose of Culture Fair aligns with the purpose of JNHS so this event is really important to us.”

JNHS was only one of the clubs hosting a booth, with the Polynesian, Spanish, Chinese and Model UN clubs also hosting booths of their own. Each booth had information presented about their culture, as well as games and activities to play. The JNHS booth, for example, featured multiple sections revolving around both education and entertainment. In one section, JNHS members would teach students how to write their names in Japanese on bookmarkers. In another section students could play the game fukuwarai, a Japanese equivalent to the game, ‘pin the tail on the donkey.’ The club also gave out Japanese dishes such as chichi dango and miso soup. Meanwhile, a more educational section had students answering trivia questions with a candy prize.

Another booth present was hosted by Model UN, which had students guess countries based on their flags. The Chinese booth also gave out envelopes with fortunes, candy and hong bao, a red envelope with money. The Spanish booth offered flan, a Spanish pastry, alongside flowers with information attached to them as well.

“Since there are people in Hawaii of Filipino descent. I want to encourage students to appreciate their own culture. Since people do not know Filipino culture, I wish to educate them through my booth,” said junior Alexis Molina.

Molina hosted the Filipino booth with five of her friends and social studies teacher Douglas

Muraoka as their supervisor. They, alongside the Laos, Mexican and Colombian stalls, were run solely by individual students and an accompanied teacher supervisor instead of clubs. The Filipino booth had a clothing rack with traditional clothing used for Tinikling dancing, a dance involving sticks of bamboo. They also presented a map of the Philippines, a painting of the Philippine island, Palawan, and translated recipes from Tagalog to English.

“Learning about why certain cultures have different traditions, meaning and roles leads to accepting who you are and where you came from. In Filipino, we must always respect our elders by doing pagmamano,” said Molina. Pagmamano is a gesture done commonly in Filipino culture to show respect.

Cultural clubs at MHS often promote different cultures and can be formed by students as long as they are approved and have an advisor. For many, an event like the Culture Fair allowed individuals to display their cultures, even if there isn’t a club dedicated to it. History teacher Micah Benavitz approached Molina to see if she was interested in starting a Filipino club, showing the lasting effect the Culture Fair can have.

“I think it’s wonderful, it’s a wonderful experience; a good way to show students. [There], is more than Hawaii, more than United States,” said Spanish Teacher Xiomara Schiller. “Let’s see what is so good about it, especially when students can experience the culture and the food.”

The Panama booth was the only booth not run by a club or individual students, and instead by a teacher. The student body was sent a form in January with the opportunity to create their own booths, but it didn’t limit who could create a booth. Xiomara ran her booth like many of the others there, giving out traditional food found in Panama and having a board with phrases translated into English from Spanish, the national language of Panama.

“Last year and this year, we made a Culture Fair committee with our club members, and so they were in charge of planning the activities for the booths. They worked really hard to make sure that the activities that we have are both fun and educational,” said Lapinid.

As the student body changes over the years and different circumstances arise, events like the Culture Fair are held differently. Last year, the event was hosted in the school cafeteria using the already existing tables. This year allowed for booths to go all out using the larger space and fix some issues faced last year, such as running out of food.

“And here it was just better that the students could be walking around outside and kind of just the environment was just so much better,” said senior Spanish Honors Society president Evelyn Carrillo.

With the fair being held in the lawn area, the total amount of space was almost four times bigger than the cafeteria. More people could enjoy simply hanging out with their friends without feeling restricted. Students could easily move around to the different booths through not just the hallways but also the center grass area.

The performances were also done at this grass area, as well as on the raised platform near the ASMHS Office in B105. The Polynesian club showed a traditional dance involving dancers in casual Hawaiian dresses. The Wah Ngai Lion Dance Association performed a standstill dragon dance, as well as a Chinese lion dance where they actively moved around the audience. This allowed members of the audience who had received a hong bao from the Chinese booth to feed it to the lions.

“Out of all the foods out of the cultures, I really liked the mangonada. Their ingredients are really good because it was so different from everyone else’s, which added a special uniqueness to it,” said senior Kamakoa Taitauguv-Laforga.

Mangonada, or chamoyada, is a sweet and spicy variation of shaved ice with an edible straw from Mexico. Sold by the 808Mangonadas truck, it was only one of the many ethnic cuisines sold at the Culture Fair. Some of the other food trucks present were Sama Sama, featuring Filipino milk tea and boba; Perefoti

Island Fixx, serving cold vaifala, a traditional Samoan drink with pineapple as well as other flavors like banana, coconut or watermelon; and Leilani’s Island Tacos and Heart to Table, which sold simple dishes like fried noodles and burgers.

“I think a lot is about the uniqueness and diversity of every culture but also the similarities. I know that us and like, Hispanic and the Philippines have a lot of similarities in the language and the food and I think that it’s really special for students to know about that,” said Carrillo.

The Culture Fair will be hosted again and MHS hopes to improve upon the fair in the years to come. Having more booths representing different cultures will allow for more activities to be held during the celebration for such a diverse array of cultures. For those interested in hosting or helping set up booths next year, contact the Mililani Inter-Club Council at 216studentactivities@k12.hi.us or Janet Ward Riehle at janet.riehle@ k12.hi.us.