Unuolehua cohort becomes kumu hula

February 18, 2015
UH News

Reading time: 2 minutes

Eleven University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo and Hawaiʻi Community College students and faculty were bestowed the title of kumu hula as graduating members of the Unuolehua cohort of Hawaiʻi CC’s Unukupukupu hula hālau (dance group). The cohort underwent ʻūniki (graduation) rites in December led by kumu and Hawaiʻi CC professor of Hawaiian studies Taupouri Tangarō.

The Unuolehua cohort was trained to make possible the creation of cultural leadership through hula, an effort brought about through the tenets of the UH System initiative, Hawaiʻi Papa O Ke Ao, a plan to make UH a leader in indigenous education. The Unukupukupu hālau is home-based at Hawaiʻi CC and is an experiential program, directed by Tangarō, created to deliver an associate of arts in Hawaiian Studies with an emphasis on hula.

Graduates included:

Kainoa Ariola (executive director of the Career and Academic Advising Center at UH Hilo), learn more about Ariola’s journey to becoming a kumu hula in UH Hilo Stories
Stacey Kaʻauʻa (Hawaiʻi CC hula track graduate, UH Hilo Hawaiian studies major, business owner)
Pele Kaʻio (Hawaiʻi CC hula track graduate, UH Hilo geography graduate, Hawaiʻi Life Styles lecturer)
Ryan McCormack (Hawaiʻi CC First Year Experience coordinator)
Wahineʻaukai Mercado (Hawaiʻi CC hula track and nursing graduate)
Gloria Pualani Muraki (retired bookkeeper)
Poliahu Naboa (Hawaiʻi CC hula track graduate, UH Hilo psychology graduate, mother of two)
Noʻel Tagab-Cruz (Hawaiʻi Life Styles Program Kūkulukuluua staff support)
Kehani Tejada (Hawaiʻi CC hula track graduate, UH Hilo history major, mother of one)
Jacqueline Uluwehi Van Blarcom (Hawaiʻi CC hula track graduate, UH Hilo biology major, Hawaiʻi CC Haʻakūmalae assistant)
Kāhealani Wilcox (Hawaiʻi CC hula track graduate, UH Hilo Hawaiian studies major)

“Tangarō trained us to be wholly responsible for the passing on of familial knowledge, to steward traditions and practices, to be able to physically execute hula,” cohort graduate Ariola explains. Dancers are also taught to be proficient in mele, myth and protocol, and to establish an intimate kinship to the environment and to the kuahu (hula altar).

For more, read the full story on the UH Hilo Stories website.