Reading Reviews

Sherri Moore 

February 17, 2012

Review #1: Hawaii’s Cultural Influence on the movie, Lilo & Stitch

WHY DID I PICK THIS TOPIC TO REVIEW?

This particular choice of review is actually not from an article or a book but instead an animated movie called Lilo & Stitch, which takes place on the tropical Hawaiian island of Kauai.  I chose this particular movie because I had watched Lilo & Stitch years ago (released in 2002) and recalled it taking place in Hawaii and centering around family and finding one's place; it was a film I could relate to. I also had a conversation the other day with retired Hawaiian school teacher, Mr. Kujiwara who was subbing in my practicum classroom.  We talked about the students and their family backgrounds, the divorce rate and the effect on kids who have a parent from the Pearl Harbor or Schofield base who are away serving in the war.  Mr. Kujiwara went on to add, “We have a variety of cultures in our school, specifically Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese and Philippine; so the students you teach are all of mixed blood. It’s hard to tell who is from where anymore.” It’s an integration of many different ethnicities over time. This got me thinking about their family structures and this movie. 

WHAT IS IT ABOUT? 

The prevailing message that’s woven contextually through-out the Lilo & Stitch storyline centers on the Hawaiian word, ‘ohana.’ Ohana means, “family, and family means no-one is left behind, or forgotten.”  I appreciate this film because it relates to the Hawaiian culture where there are many extended families existing across the islands.  In fact ohana can also include others who aren’t related by birth, like a valued friend or even an entire group of close friends or colleagues, including the homeless in Waikiki, which unfortunately is a sad thing for me to see. 
Another reason why I enjoy the Lilo & Stitch movie is that I have lived in other countries by myself and have adopted my own ‘ohana’ family of friends. I have for example 5 mothers and a whole bunch of sisters!  I also adopted an indigenous boy from Bolivia into my ohana, of which he’s been a part of since 2004. The sense of compassion and of caring for another is powerful. Thanks in addition to Hawaii’s late music superstar, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (known as ‘IZ’), ohana is recognized internationally with IZ often referring to his friends on the internet as his “cyber ‘ohana.” It’s a feel-good-kind-of- win-win-situation all around. 

In a nutshell, the film is about two sisters who lost their parents in a car accident and an alien creature who literally crashes his flaming space-rocket into their lives and into their hearts, becoming part of the ‘broken family’, and bringing with him his own idiosyncrasies.  As the movie unfolds with its character’s struggles and revelations, (much like a traditional family), a bond of understanding, acceptance and new beginnings takes shape and the foundations of family (ohana) is re-built and strengthened with the joining of its new members, each bringing their own strengths and vulnerabilities. 

HOW DOES IT CONTRIBUTE TO MY TAB EXPERIENCE AND TO ME AS AN EDUCATOR?

When I think of a school community I like to think of it as a ‘school ohana’, where no-one feels left behind or forgotten.                 

Now that I’m doing my practicum in a Hawaiian school I find myself learning more about the various family structures that exist here.  Many families consist of parents, grandparents and children who are all living under one roof. In fact the vice-principal’s family is just that and I appreciate hearing the support network that is there for both the young and old, much like the concept I like of ‘a village raising a child.’  So being here in Oahu it’s not unusual to hear of a child being raised by a grandparent or an aunt while a parent is elsewhere earning money, much like the reality of military service.  Funny enough, Lilo & Stitch was written by Chris Sanders who was actually raised in a multi-generational house himself with his father, two aunts and a grandmother.      

Lilo & Stitch also contributes to my TAB environment and to me as a teacher by showing us our good and our vulnerable sides.  It provides us with the possibility of exploring the interpretation of ‘family’ differently. For me the movie creates awareness and promotes action, inclusion and acceptance, not only of one’s individuality, family background and ethnicity, but also what makes each one of us unique, in our own special way.  There is no perfect person or way to be but if people work with nurturance in mind then a sense of harmony can be found.  Our perception and attitude can make all the difference.  For example, in the movie Stitch’s physical appearance appeals to some as ‘cute and fluffy ‘and to others as ‘ugly and deformed’, however to Lilo she loves and accepts him.  Lilo believes that her and the little blue creature can relate because she felt ‘left behind by her parents and forgotten by her friends.’ It’s a movie that conveys a powerful message to its viewers who may often wonder where they belong.  

I think who ever watches this film and listens to the music will have a character or two they can empathize with, particularly with Stitch.  At first he’s lost and very angry and even misunderstood because no-one knows anything about him, so they pre-judge and assume for example that he is a dog and put him in a shelter. This of course is where Lilo comes into the story and adopts him, accepting him for what she sees - someone (or something) unique like her.  She thinks it’s neat that he can pick his nose with his tongue and talk (he has many talents) and he is someone she can love and who will love her back and not leave her. From then on the relationship development between Stitch’s new family, Lilo and Nani begins.  All three characters come to accept who they are and where they fit in within their new family nucleus, and the community. 

I interviewed a few elementary school kids during our lunch break and it was great to see them pick up on the family moral.  Like society, and schools in particular, people of all ages work at belonging every day.          

    

As quoted by a viewer of the movie, “Lilo is a different kind of girl who gets treated bad because of her uniqueness, the same way I was treated growing up, and it nearly makes you cry when she says "people treat me different" when Nani was trying to explain to Lilo that hurting her friends was wrong. I loved it growing up, and I never once hit a person because of the influence of this movie.  

Another quote states, “Lilo is considered weird, so she doesn't really have friends that understand her, so people often call her names. That’s what happens all the time in society, when people don't understand, they ridicule, the same thing happened to me. The characters are all lovable and relatable to a lot of people.”

In wrapping up my review of Lilo & Stitch, the movie is food for the soul: Family is everything, and you don’t have to be from earth or a far off planet to find your ‘ohana.’

Resources

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/lilo-and-stitch

http://gohawaii.about.com/cs/hawaiifilms/a/lilo_and_stitch_2.htm

http://amazon.com/liloandstitch  
Lilo & Stitch (2002). Walt Disney Productions
Retired teacher Mr. Lloyd Kujiwara and students of Mililani Waena Elementary School

February 17, 2012

Sherri Moore

Review # 2. Molama I Ka ‘Aina – Caring for the Land: Reduce Reuse Recycle

As Canadians we have learned to include recycling as a part of our lives and with governments that support it, but in comparison to parts of the United States it’s somewhat of a novelty. Recycling awareness is something that our children take as the custom, we’ve now engrained it as a practice that we do in our day-to-lives, as opposed to doing it for causes on a limited basis. When I walk around the island of Oahu, Hawai’i I don’t see the promotion of recycling to the degree we have in Canada, and I can’t help but wonder why? 

‘Reduce, reuse and recycle’ is a cause of mine because I have always been passionate about conservation which I was dedicated to teaching about while living in South America for nine years. There was absolutely zero recycling, or even the concept of reducing and reusing materials.  I’d teach about reducing and reusing, and would incorporate recycled materials into class projects, but unfortunately that was as far as my influence could go at the time.  Hopefully some students carried it on.

Now that I’m on Oahu, Hawai'i, U.S.A., and not a third world country such as what I experienced, I thought recycling would be a serious initiative.  So I began digging into my topic idea for my paper and came across the word, ‘kokua’ which means ‘help’.  During my search I found this incredible website called the Kokua Hawai'i Foundation which is a non-profit organization that supports environment education in the schools and local communities of Hawai'i. It teaches it’s ‘keiki’(children) to care for the land (‘aina).

The Kokua Hawai'i Foundation is amazing! I became instantly intrigued when I read about the FREE support they provide local schools, then I saw the long list of thirty-eight schools who are involved. Much to my dismay my practicum school was not mentioned which got me wondering why?  I decided to inquire by asking around my school. There’s a Student Council, I’m told who organizes a weekly pick-up of pop cans and plastic bottles, but nothing more. Now living on an island I have to wonder, where does all this trash go if reducing, reusing and recycling appears not to be taken seriously enough? 

In Canada we have our municipal government who looks after all of these costs but perhaps on an island such as Hawai’i it’s a much more difficult process. My belief is that education about the 3 R’s has to be incorporated into, and become a part of our family values and civic duties, no matter where we live. Where people exist there is bound to be a fascination with consumerism (buying out of want, not need) and a tremendous impact on the environment with respect to waste. Tourism promotes a lot of plastic items like beach equipment; take out containers, cups, water bottles, plastic bags (which hurt marine life) and souvenirs. It is also the habits and customs of tourists which contribute greatly to the land and sea’s well-being.

What has stood out overall in Canada for me thinking back, is looking after what we’ve got - a beautiful environment, albeit with our oil sands issues. I understand that some of the things that happen in Hawai'i are because I am in America. America is a different culture from Canada but the fact that I’m now on an island (dependent on its tourism for income) where dumping trash is a big deal (it’s shipped), admittedly I took for granted when I came here, that recycling would be deeply engrained as a norm in people’s lives. After all if you live on a rock in the middle of the sea wouldn’t it have to be?

Developing a ‘sense of place’ in a setting that doesn’t implement recycling to the extent that I would like to see is a challenge.  From an educator’s perspective, my wish is that ALL keiki learn about the traditional Hawai'ian custom of ‘aina’, a custom passed down from the ancestors of these 8 beautiful oasis islands.  ‘Aina’ is about honouring the land, sea, and sky gods who provided gifts to the Hawai'ian people, those who did not waste or spoil anything. When Columbus arrived a lot changed. 

Here we are in 2012 and as a guest, I would like to invite my school to become aware of Kokua and the wonderful programs it offers by helping the four Grade 3 classes participate in the annual Kokua Hawai'i Foundation’s calendar colouring contest.  I’m sure you can guess what the theme is about ... My effort to contribute to the 3 R’s involves bagging all the recycling that my room-mate and I have and taking it over to his mom’s house in Kaneohe, another district.  There houses have blue recycling bins beside the standard black garbage bins.  I bring home materials from school that are discarded in the bin that I am able to carry and recycle.  

My hope is that this non-profit Kokua Hawai'i Foundation with its excellent intentions is able to reach ALL island schools in its aim to educate the keiki on becoming life-long stewards, respectful of their islands. This includes the other lands Islanders choose to call home; as well as the thousands of weekly tourists who visit here.

The Hawaiian traditional saying of ‘aina’ goes, “If you are trashing your environment, you are trashing your home.” “Molama I Ka ‘Aina - take care of your land and it will take care of you.”

 The website I used for my review: http://kokuahawaiifoundation.org/schoolprograms/

 Resources

http://kokuahawaiifoundation.org/

http://kokuahawaiifoundation.org/schoolprograms/3rsschoolrecycling/

Images: http://kokuahawaiifoundation.org/schoolprograms/ainainschools/

 February 17, 2012

Review # 3. Hawai’i’s Hula History

Why I chose this article and what it’s about:

Few tourists can visit the Hawai’ian Islands and not hear the word, ‘hula’ mentioned at least once. I happen to be one of those curious persons who is fascinated by this culturally significant dance, specifically the origin and meaning behind the traditional type known as the ‘hula kahiko,’ which included percussion and chanting.  Also, having studied Sociology I was naturally intrigued to know more about how this culture has gone about preserving its culture, religion and heritage through the art of storytelling via a ritual dance. The hula is a very meaningful dance and each moment portrays representation of something like imitating a plant, animal or even war! The idea is that as each dancer moves their hips in rhythmic movement and their hands, they are transforming themselves to portray that which they are presenting, along with the message they chant. 

Hawai’i is the only state in the U.S.A. that has two official languages, that being English and Hawai’ian.  Schools on the islands now offer a mandatory cultural class in Grade 4 on the dance, customs and language of the Hawai’ian people in order to revive a legacy that had been at risk of dying out.  (Here I’ve attached two images taken from my school as an example). 

It is said that the hula dance had been used to document and communicate the history and genealogy of the Hawai’ian’s long before written records were around. However around the 1800’s it all but nearly vanished when missionaries arriving on the islands denounced the hula dance, (similar to what the Kwakiutl experienced on the northern part of Vancouver Island with the temporary banning of their ceremonial potlatches).  

The traditional Kahiko hula dance, believed to have originated from the gods, was taken very seriously among its people, including their Hawai’ian King Kalakaua.  He persevered to keep it alive, despite the missionaries’ proclamation that the hula dance was promoting ‘paganism’.  Perhaps this was due in part to the fact that the Kahiko hula dance was religious and ritualistic in nature, it was more about honoring the gods and goddesses than about entertainment, which is what we see more of today.

 Hula Kahiko dancers had to respect strict rules when dancing, such not cutting or dyeing the hair, painting or cutting fingernails, having sex or even consuming specific foods!  The purpose of this extreme commitment was believed to increase the connection between a hula dancer and the earth, where energy and power would spring from their feet.  

Dancers would make their own costumes and percussion instruments and would also chant their history as a means of keeping it alive through the generations.  Now with the tourist industry what it is, there is a more modern form of hula dance geared towards more towards entertainment than traditional storytelling and ritual dancing.  

This article relates to my TAB environment and to me as an educator because it is informing me of the meaning of ‘hula dancing ‘and allowing me to appreciate the Hawai’ian culture more. I admit that my previous visits to O’ahu were ones where I was not interested in attending the Polynesian Cultural Center because I saw it as an expensive entertainment gimmick. Now after talking with some local people, they have told me that the center (interestingly enough run by a religious organization) is one way to spread the history about the Hawai’ian people through the shows and that are presented, and unbeknownst to me, provide additional financial support for local university students:

“What is the purpose of the Polynesian Cultural Center? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opened the Polynesian Cultural Center, considered one of the world's most successful cultural theme attractions, on October 12, 1963, to help preserve and perpetuate the more ideal aspects of Polynesian culture, and to provide work opportunities for students at the adjoining (spiritual) Brigham Young University Hawai'i.
Since opening, over 33 million visitors have been introduced to the Polynesian people, their arts and customs, and nearly 15,000 BYU-Hawai'i students have helped finance their educational objectives while working as the friendly guides, performers and other PCC employees serving people from all over the world.”

Yes, the traditional Kuhiko hula dance entails some adjustments and is referred as the Auna hula dance in order to keep the audience engaged (i.e. some singing is done in English) and the costumes have changed from the traditional grass skirts to colourful fabrics depicting the local Hibiscus and Plumeria flowers.  What it also provides for is keeping many locals employed, the history alive in schools with tourists from around the world interested in sharing and supporting what they experienced.  I like that the traditional Kuhiko is still taught and practiced as a time honored tradition so that the authenticity of its history remains alive. I just don’t know about the uncut hair, nails etc., that requires some true dedication.

Here I am proof that that! As part of my TAB commitment,  I plan to attend the Polynesian Center but here comes the other crunch, (aside from my desire for true authenticity), it’s about the ‘green’, and I don’t mean the endangered green turtle that inhabits the many shores for daily naps, I’m talking about money. To attend an evening show it will dent my student budget by $ 69.95 (a free buffet dinner depending on availability) upwards to $230. 00. (I wonder if they reduce, reuse and recycle?)

Resources

Article: http://www.lifescript.com/life/timeout/entertainment/the_history_of_the_hula_dance.aspx

http://www.polynesia.com/packages.html

Images: http://www.janeresture.com/hawaii_postcards16/index.htm

Images: http://www.superstock.co.uk/stock-photos-images/1760-3221