HONOLULU (HI Now) - On September 11, 1976, the Kalihi-Pālama Culture & Arts Society, Inc. organized a festival to honor Hawai’i’s last reigning monarch, Queen Liliʻuokalani. The day-long event was held at Aʻala Park and featured multi-ethnic dance performances, Hawaiian crafts, demonstrations, a pageant of Hawaiʻi’s mōʻī wāhine and the first keiki hula competition.
Kalihi-Pālama’s program coordinator, Kahu Wendell Silva, along with committee chairman and Kumu Hula legend, Uncle George Naʻope, envisioned a competition where children could share their achievements in hula while learning about Queen Lili’uokalani, her ‘ohana and Hawaiʻi’s historical past. Their mission was to create an organization to perpetuate Hawaiian culture through dance and by doing so teach a new generation to carry on the traditions of hula in to the future.
For more information, visit www.keikihula.org.
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