Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 5, 1 May 2013 — For Miss Aloha Hula, winning the language award is just as meaningful [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

For Miss Aloha Hula, winning the language award is just as meaningful

By Kekoa Enomoīo HILO, HAWALI ISLAND— Twen-ty-four-year-old Manalani Mili Hokoana English chanted and swayed her way to the coveted Miss Aloha Hula title April 4 at the 50th anniversary Merrie Monarch Festival's hula competition. English - with Hālau Nā Lei Kaumaka O Uka, of Upcountry Maui, under the direction of sisters and eo-Kumu Hula Nāpua Greig and Kahulu Maluo - also won the $1,000 Office of Hawaiian Affairs Hawaiian Language Award with a chant in the challenging oli ho'āeae style. The daughter of Leni Hokoana English and Glen English of Waiohuli, Maui, described the oli style as tricky, where one chants a line, then drops the voice pitch and elongates the

last part of a next line. "When you do the technique correctly, the language becomes naturally easier to enunciate ... the right way," she said. The chant was "a simple, beautiful oli about beautiful places, winds, rains and mountains: poetically speaking and metaphorically speaking (about) simple and specific ways of lovemaking. If you look at my oli on the surface, it's just really beautiful. But if you ean understand 'ōlelo Hawai'i and (understand) the poetic ways (of expression) of our kūpuna, then it's even that mueh more beautiful - to really get deep into the poetry of the oli." The Kamehameha Schools-Maui graduate, who attended Hawaiian-language immersion school from kindergarten through second grade, appreciated the OHA award. "It's such

an honor to have gotten that kind of recognition. I spent more time on the oli than on everything else because 'ōlelo Hawai'i is so crucial to hula and to everything we see as hula. 'Ōlelo Hawai'i, the language, is what our people need to be so focused on.

"For me, I'm not a kumu, I don't teach language. I don't have the ability to always be around the language nowadays," the X-ray technology student acknowledged. "So it's a huge, huge title to have won. It's just as big as winning first

plaee as Miss Aloha Hula. It's really important. "I know now so many haumana (students), so many classmates of mine are buckling down to understand our kūpuna ways, especially the language, so it's good to know our language is strong and very mueh alive." For her hula kahiko, or ancient hula, performance of " 'Auhea Wale 'Oe E Ka Ua Noe" about the slow-moving ko'iaweawe rain, English said she wore lei of palapalai, liko lehua and a touch of kō, or sugarcane. "My kumu tried really hard to embrace kō, a kind of kino lau (manifestation) of love." Her ti-leaf skirt, or "pā'ū lā'ī, in itself a work of aloha, shows the commitment it takes to make and mold from the beginning. From picking, to tying it on, it's a representation of the relationship of love. From beginning to end, its continuum resembles mele ho'oipoipo," she said, referring to love songs. And the skirt's style was favored by the late kumu hula Ray Fonseca, a Hilo teacher of Kahulu Maluo. English described the style as braiding ti leaves "like a fan." "It was the first time I made that style, so thank you, Unele Ray. It's really gorgeous and a tradition of his that should very mueh stay alive for a long time." For her hula 'auana, or modern hula, she wore a gown of dark-blue burnt-out velvet from Japan to provide contrast to lei 'ākulikuli, worn to honor composer Larry Lindsey Kimura of Waimea, Hawai'i Island. A cousin of Nāpua Greig, Kimura had written the words to the contestant's ka'i, or entrance song, "E Ku'u Morning Dew," and to her hula, "E Pili Mai," and had co-composed her ho'i, or exit song, "Sweet Memory." "That was a really big honor," English said of Kimura's willingness to write two more verses to "E Pili Mai" last December. The trio of mele signified a love that "lasts forever ... from early morning to nighttime," she said. English is a 15-year dancer, since age 9, with Hālau Nā Lei Kaumaka O Uka. She had won the 2006 Miss Hula O Nā Keiki crown on

the Valley Isle and had placed first runner-up by three points to 201 1 Miss Aloha Hula Tori Hulali Canha of Maui's Hālau Ke'alaokamaile led by Kumu Hula Keali'i Reichel. She and Canha are 2007 classmates at Kamehameha-Maui, where English was a

standout softball pitcher and where this year's first runner-up Sloane Makana West is a senior. West dances with Hālau Kekuaokalā'au'ala'iliahi, of Wailuku, guided by Nā Kumu Hula 'Iliahi and Haunani Paredes.

For English's second attempt at the title, the 2011 festival was a source of anguish. English said she felt "everyone out there in the Merrie Monarch world was wondering, 'Why in the world is she running again? She lost by three points; is she expecting to win?' " Finally, in January, one of her uncles asked, "What's wrong? Why are you holding back?" "I admitted, 'I don't know why I'm doing this. ... People will be thinking (my performanee) wasn't enough.' "He said: ' You cannot think or worry about what other people say, because that's hula. When all is said and done on the Merrie Monarch stage, every single person is going to have an opinion. Some may be good, some may be bad.' "That was really good for me to hear," she said. "So the whole goal is to have fun ... celebrating something that many people live for. That was probably the biggest thing that affected me running for Miss Aloha Hula" in 2013. English, who will graduate in July from Kap'iolani Community College, now faces "a lot of hours to make up in the hospital, a lot of papers to write, to finish up the halanee of school, and finding time to celebrate." With upcoming trips to Las Vegas and Japan, the 2013 Miss Aloha Hula said she will "eonhnue to be an ambassador of hula, master the mele, master the traditions of my kumu and their kumu, and eonhnue to make themproud. ... "One day when I have children, I want them to be around our language, to understand the importance of our language. Just being a regular Hawaiian, speaking Hawaiian, was always my life, but even more so now that I carry the title. I want to make the point that our language is crucial and just as important as hula is to our culture." ■ Kekoa Enomoto is a retired copy editor and staffwriter with The Maui News and former Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Merrie Monarch Festival For more coverage from Hilo, please see page 20.

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