Eleven and students and faculty were bestowed the title of kumu hula as graduating members of the Unuolehua cohort of Â鶹´«Ã½ CC’s hula hālau (dance group). The cohort underwent ʻūniki (graduation) rites in December led by kumu and Â鶹´«Ã½ 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, Â鶹´«Ã½ Papa O Ke Ao, a plan to make UH a leader in indigenous education. The Unukupukupu hālau is home-based at Â鶹´«Ã½ 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),
- Stacey Kaʻauʻa (Â鶹´«Ã½ CC hula track graduate, UH Hilo Hawaiian studies major, business owner)
- Pele Kaʻio (Â鶹´«Ã½ CC hula track graduate, UH Hilo geography graduate, Â鶹´«Ã½ Life Styles lecturer)
- Ryan McCormack (Â鶹´«Ã½ CC First Year Experience coordinator)
- Wahineʻaukai Mercado (Â鶹´«Ã½ CC hula track and nursing graduate)
- Gloria Pualani Muraki (retired bookkeeper)
- Poliahu Naboa (Â鶹´«Ã½ CC hula track graduate, UH Hilo psychology graduate, mother of two)
- Noʻel Tagab-Cruz (Â鶹´«Ã½ Life Styles Program Kūkulukuluua staff support)
- Kehani Tejada (Â鶹´«Ã½ CC hula track graduate, UH Hilo history major, mother of one)
- Jacqueline Uluwehi Van Blarcom (Â鶹´«Ã½ CC hula track graduate, UH Hilo biology major, Â鶹´«Ã½ CC Haʻakūmalae assistant)
- Kāhealani Wilcox (Â鶹´«Ã½ 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, .
More on Unukupukupu
- UH News story: “Unukupukupu to return to Smithsonian Folklife Festival,” January 9, 2013
- UH News video: June 26, 2012
- Â鶹´«Ã½News video: June 13, 2012