From panel discussions to celebrity performances, Hawaiian tradition and talent shine at the annual Celebration of the Arts Festival hosted by the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua. Scenes from previous festivals: Cultural kūpuna attend festival opening ceremony. - Photo: Courtesy of Tony Novak-Clifford

Hawaiian arts festival a birthing ground for native soul

By Liza Simon / Ka Wai Ola

Fifteen years ago, mass protests halted construction of the Ritz-Carlton at Kapalua after it came to light that the luxury resort was being built along a beach that served as the final resting place for an estimated 1,100 sets of iwi kupuna. This was hardly the first time Native Hawaiian ancestral bones were accidentally unearthed by a development project, but never before had so many native descendants been so steadfast in demanding amends be made. The hotel agreed. It left the sacred land to be cared for by the state as the Honokahua Burial Preservation Site and it relocated to nearby bluffs.

Few back then could have imagined that the Ritz-Carlton would become the host and site of the Celebration of the Arts Festival, or what's evolved to be the largest annual gathering of Native Hawaiian practitioners and experts, who share their films, performances, exhibits, workshops, plays, lectures and panel discussions – at no cost to the public, other than the fee for one evening lū'au and some nominal craft supply charges. Think Merrie Monarch excellence meets 'onipa'a consciousness and you begin to get an idea of the event's uniqueness, which has found a huge and varied following and netted awards for its elevation of traditional arts as a bridge of understanding between the Hawaiian community and the rest of the globe.

Scenes from previous festivals: A hula by students from the Pā'ia School Hawaiian Language Immersion program. - Photo: Courtesy of Tony Novak-Clifford

Once again this year, more than 3,000 people, almost half of them local – are expected to stream into the luxuriant grounds of the Kapalua resort for the festival, which will be held from April 10 to 12.

That the festival dates usually coincide with Easter – a symbol of renewal, is no mere coincidence, according to event chairman and Ritz-Carlton cultural adviser Clifford Nae'ole. "Kapalua became ground zero of the realization that we have to pay attention to the ancestors. What better way than to do this than to bring in people who have a message to share about Hawaiians learning to be Hawaiian," said Nae'ole, noting that some invited presenters are initially put off by personal memories of the hotel's controversial past. "But once they come, they return year after year. They get it, that out of something bad in the past, new laws came out. Burial Councils were established. The Ritz-Carlton took responsibility – and so did we in being steadfast and in saying that if you can't build a hotel at Arlington National Cemetery, then you can't build it here either. We've said our peace, and now we've moved on."

Nae'ole is a quick study in the sense of cultural rebirth, which is a basic ingredient of the festival's appeal. He grew up in Wailuku around his taro-farmer grandfather, but he left Maui for a period to work in the hospitality industry on the U.S. continent. "Being away made me realize I was Hawaiian by blood, but not by soul," he said. "I took things like surfing and singing and fishing for granted and never saw these things in the larger picture of what my ancestors gave me."

Scenes from previous festivals: Calvin Hoe of the Hakipu'u Learning Center Charter School helps keiki construct ohe hano iho—the Hawaiian nose flute.- Photo: Courtesy of Tony Novak-Clifford

He returned home in 1992, studied hula and took a position as a telephone operator at the then-newly opened Ritz-Carlton. With an expanding awareness, he began noticing things around the property that were culturally questionable, he said – a pahu drum used as a prop, Disneyland-like tiki, misuse of 'ōlelo Hawai'i on hotel menus. When he took his concerns to the hotel manager, he was surprised that the response was "to realign whatever was out of order." Two years later, the manager offered Nae'ole a job as the resort's first cultural adviser. This positioned him to inherit the festival reigns in 1994 from Henry Kapono, who was contracted in 1992 by the hotel to produce a multicultural spectacle. "As time went on, it was in the flow to come back to the theme of who we are as Hawaiians," said Nae'ole.

It's been Nae'ole's kuleana to come up with the yearly concept for the festival, but he is inclined to pass along the credit. "The strange thing is, the day after the event is over, I go and sit at Honokahua. I look up at the sky, and ask my ancestors, 'What now?' And the answers come."

He 'Āina O Nā Anuenue o Hawai'i – Land of Rainbows is the theme Nae'ole chose for this year's festival. Also framing this year's event is the familiar saying, Lucky we Live Hawai'i. Visitors will be given the chance to do original mixed-media responses to the sunny phrase. Children will also add to the positive expression with a little help from Lehua Nae'ole, a Hawaiian immersion school teacher and also a sister to Clifford. All the responses will be compiled later into a book meant to highlight the everyday reactions that Hawai'i's beauty inspires. In a related panel discussion, Ho'okupu, Makana, Mahalo, noted kumu have been invited to explore the cultural protocol for expressing everyday gratitude.

Nae'ole says that the festival does everything to encourage spectators to become participants. Whether it's speaking from the heart about sovereignty or carving a nose flute or learning to prepare a dish of 'ōpae and 'opihi, the joy of the festival, he says, is a "bonding experience that comes from putting aside the Me for the We."

True to this aim, even the celebrities on stage do everything to close the gap with their audiences. "One time, Maunalua was playing the big lū'au stage but had dozens of people come up to sing, dance alongside them. It was like a huge backyard party that just happened to be at the Ritz-Carlton."

Maunalua will return to headline the festival in 2009, as will Napua Greig, Nā Hōkū Hanohano's 2008 vocalist of the year. And venerated cultural authority and storyteller Sam Ka'ai will team up with photographer Shane Tegarden to present an illustrated series of ancient mo'olelo. Amid dozens of craft stations, Ni'ihau shell lei makers will return. They have been a perennial star attraction at the Maui spectacle for 15 years, giving instruction for stringing their precious kahelelani shells into anklets, earrings and bracelets. Their personal warmth and passion for speaking in their Ni'ihau dialect are at the root of their appeal, Nae'ole says. He has seen people enter the Ni'ihau courtyard and end up staying nearly through the night. This, he says, speaks volumes about a vibe that sets the Kapalua event apart.

"It's always been my pet peeve that for 95 percent of visitors here, their experience with Hawaiians has been based on a brochure – how we sway to the hula or make lei. They weren't getting to know the workings of Hawaiians as architects, medicine men, poets, navigators and farmers," said Nae'ole, who describes himself as self-trained to serve in Maui's hospitality industry, inspired by an uncle who managed the old Maui Lu Hotel. "He always told me to follow two rules in this business," Nae'ole says with a laugh: "Don't get married and make friends with the chef." While he's followed the latter but not the former, Nae'ole very early on added his own third rule: "If you're Hawaiian, take the opportunity to share as one Hawaiian."

For a listing of events and more information on the 17th annual Celebration of the Arts Festival at the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua, visit www.celebrationofthearts.org.