Biography Hawaiʻi; Maiki Aiu Lake; Interview with Gordean Bailey 6/6/02 #1

H NATURILот H NATURILот H NATURILот H NATURILот H NATURIL Familie, sewing grad, reading time H NATURILó, Down to Handbar H NATURILÊ H NatURILÊ H NatURILÊ I'm a farmer here in Kula for the last 40 years or so. My husband and I moved from Honolulu with our little daughter. And we've been farmers since. And along the way, maybe 10 years ago, I decided to fulfill a lifelong dream as to share the Hula that I've learned with Auntie. So how did you start dancing? Well, maybe about age 10, a group of girls from Robert Lewis, Stevenson, and myself decided we needed to dance.

And so we sought out a Hula teacher and that happened to be Mahi Bhima. So he was our first teacher. And that was on Kuala Kaua right there above Beachwalk. And so that was my first formal Hula lesson. I had been around Hula dancers all my life. My grandmother was a minister at Kamaku Maoloa Church in Kalihi. And we always had parties for not only family but weddings for other people, baby luau, things like that. I was always around Hula dancers as a kid, tugging at the skirts. And when I had a chance, then it was my turn to dance. And after Mahi, I joined his cousin, Nona Bhima, on Lower Street.

And it was there that I met the soon to be greats like Ed Kenney. Ed Kenney was part of the Hula within the studio. We called it the Bhima Hula studio. And Upena Wong was our chanter. And they were cutting him. I would say our senior dancer with Antinona. The boys were just tiny tots at the time, Kiel and Kapono. What year were we? We're just a minor. Okay. All right. Okay, stand by everybody. Okay. I was just wondering about what time period was that the year with Antinona? I was 11 to 13 with Antinona.

And I'm 62 now, so you add. What does that make it? Yes, probably about 1951. And her studio was in Ankara, Kawa? Was it near? No, it was on Lures when I joined Antinona's. Uncle Mahi disappeared. I don't know if he went off to Juilliard or where he went after I was with him for a short time. But then I joined Nona's, Antinona. I just, you know, I'm curious because I... Were there many young people your age at that time interested in learning and studying Hula? Well, my friends and I were interested and I had maybe six or seven friends who came along. But I think you're right.

Not many stayed on if that's a gauge. Maybe three of us continued on through high school. And one of them became my Hula partner. Even when we left Nona, she joined Antinona as well. And so we became a team at the next stage of dance. And how did you get to the next stage? Okay. So my mom did flowers and she would help do flowers for lots of the musicians around town, Lowe and Stein and Lois Guerrero and my mom grew orchids and she would, among other things. And so she would produce corsages and lay and whatever. So it was... So Antinmae, that she learned about my KIU at the time. And so she said, call my friend Mikey and see if she can join her because I was looking for a new Hula home.

And he did let me come and watch for a little while because her rule was if you come from another Halao, she would like you to wait a year before you joined her. And so I said, well, if you won't let me dance, can I come and watch every week? So she says, okay, I guess you can come and watch. She got tired of me watching one day. She said, come on and dance. I know you're serious about this because I did have to walk a mile and a half to the bus stop to get to and from Hula and then get on the bus to KL Mokou Street, which is where she was at the time. And so that was my routine. After school, I would go there and sit and watch till she invited me to come and dance. And how old were you?

I was 14. What did she teach you? Did you have a kind of a method? Yes, Auntie had a method. Like the beamers, I should say that I taught for the beamers as well. Once I joined Nona, they asked me to help teach at age 12. And so a lot of my friends here in Kula remember dancing with me on the Lulu, my being 12 and they may be being 13 or 11, something like that. So I helped teach for Auntie Nona and I found that each had their own method. Auntie Mikey was a little more strict with what she required of you as a dancer. The dress, the ornaments, the need to do the research that was necessary to whatever you were doing. And she explained a lot more of the background to each melee that we danced.

So that really gave you an insight into more of what was happening every time you danced. But I must say that I enjoyed my time with Uncle Mahi and Auntie Nona as well. They are a whole nother light in the hula and Auntie Mikey provided an extension of that light, but in her own way again. They were all beautiful people. I'm lucky to still have Auntie Nona and Uncle Mahi to hug a little when I see them. Did you have to keep a notebook when you were with Auntie Mikey? Initially not so strict as later on. Although I was one who needed to have notes and so I did keep all my papers that were handed out. And my old notes, yes, I still have them.

Did you make the younger children keep these notebooks? Do you know what went into those notebooks? Well, I think as we started hula, the basic hula steps, what they were called, a kind of foundation to what you were learning so that you could take that foundation and expand on it as you learn new songs. I guess I was really lucky that when I joined Auntie, I had a lot of time for learning, but we did also have a lot of time for private shows and Queen Surf and then she had me part of a line of dancers at the Old Laoui Chai. So my father and mom would always escort us there because mom did the lay and she had a floor, too. My mom did so, she would provide the lay for the dancing and the foundation Auntie gave me was more than just books.

It was the social part of entertaining, the behaviors needed for being part of a private party. All of those things became a part of my learning at age 14. What were some of the things she expected of you when she sent you out as a dance? She expected you to behave in a certain way. Again, the dress was always to be cared for and pressed neatly in a garment bag and ready to dance. I think has helped me through the years become better prepared to be a dancer as I go out into the community even now with groups of youngsters.

I teach what I learned. Did she have any expectations of how you should relate to an audience? Yes, I think the dancer's responsibility was to get the message to the audience and I kind of suspect that when she chose the dancer to represent her hallou, she was looking for a certain kind of person who would behave and emote according to how she taught and what she felt was needed. I think there was a way that she behaved herself that we were aware of and carried that through when we went out to dance publicly.

Did she tell us what that way was that she had about herself? She was really special to me because she taught things very carefully, whether it was making a tea leaf skirt or string the lay. Everything was important to the hula so that being around her was the special part of learning because she had a way of teaching that was kind and gentle. So you really learnt in a loving way.

I know from others who have been hula dancers all their lives that they come from a different way of approaching teaching. But with Auntie, it was not the puili that was whacking the leg or harsh words, it was always, let's try it this way or maybe you want to do it this way or buy her example more than her harshness you learnt. Did she ever tell you how she knew or how she herself came to have this great love and hula? Excuse me, it's okay. I think it was unusual maybe for you to stop. Did she ever tell you how she started her life in Bula?

You know, when we look at the big picture of her life when she decided that she really wanted to be serious about... I was really lucky to know her in that part of her life. You know, Colette went to the convent, her oldest daughter, Colette, did you know about Colette? My mother actually grew up with Auntie in Palolo, and she was as a youngster raised by her tutu Kailoha in Palolo, and my mother lived around the corner from them. My mom was her cousin's very best friend, she had a cousin named Kula, and so when Kula would come to visit my mom, here would be Auntie at age five with her ukulele playing,

well, how am I going to do my radio poo, and mom would hear her coming down the street, she says, oh no, here she is again at age five. So my mom knew her love for ukulele and sang as she was growing up at Auntie's age five. She knew her when she was living with the Kailohas in Palolo. My mom did, yes, and my mom didn't know when I joined Auntie Mikey that this was Margaret Sousa. She knew her as Margaret Sousa, my mom did, until one day she called mom and said, this is Mikey, are you? And my mom said, yes, you're teaching my daughter Hula, yes, you remember Margaret Sousa, my mother said, you're Margaret Sousa?

So the connection there came back, we didn't know that I didn't realize that this was my mom's little playmate when she was a little girl. And anyway, this was years later that we discovered that she grew up with mom. That is amazing. That is amazing for us, it was amazing. And yes, Auntie told me anyway that she started her dance when she was a youngster as well, and I believe Paul Alameda used to play her music. So when I joined her, Paul was still playing music for her. And so I had that privilege of dancing with him as well, a little bit. Great. Can we get back to what we were talking about before about, I was asking you, if she ever, we were talking about how unusual it was for Mikey to be interested in dancing on the forties.

I think when I joined Auntie, there were not too many who were as committed to Hula teaching as she was. She had a Hulao that was spacious and upstairs on Kay Elmoku Street, and it was where she could have as many as 20 women at once dancing. She had classes, I believe daily. It was part of her daily routine to teach part of the day and take care of the family part of the day. And I remember the children calling before bedtime just to kiss her good night over the phone, but she would be at the Hulao till late into the evening.

She was just so devoted to the dance and to perpetuating whatever she was given as a dancer to share and pass that legacy along. And so many of us joined her for that reason. We were drawn to the soul of the dance that was being called, I think in that time, to be reborn. And so many of us gathered there to just be a part of that rebirth of our dance.

Do you think she played a major role? Yeah, definitely. I believe she did. And she shared with the community, I believe every two years, a uniki or a recital, or what did you call it, a concert, so that others could share in what was being perpetuated. And she would always present it in such a beautiful manner that more people, I'm sure, were drawn into that circle of rebirth. Until today, we have an explosion of the love of Hula, which is perfect. It's what was kept from us for so long. And I think with Auntie's love for Hula, she passed that same love on to us so that we could help carry it through today. When you were a young girl, when you were learning from Auntie Nona, and then when you went to Auntie Mikey, when you were in the preteen in early teen years, do you think there were many other places in the community that you could go and receive that reinforcement of being Hawaiian?

No, there weren't many. I think the foundation of that was in our home and my grandmother's home. Our family, because my grandmother was connected with the church, always had Hawaiian families in residence because they either had no home or were in transition from one home to the next. So, our grandmother's home would always house the aloes, the purdies, the watsons, the kaneheles. You know, I mean, we were always with our Hawaiian people because of my grandmother's connection with the church. And along with that, she belonged to the aloes, and that was another way to help perpetuate her love for our melee and our Hawaiian nests.

And she sang with Bina Mossman's choir, this is grandmother, and Auntie would do the hula part of their public gatherings. So, I became a part of that as well with Auntie Mikey and my younger years with her, with Auntie Bina. And along with Auntie Bina, our grandmother would always have when I came home from school in her rocking chair would be Papa Bray. Daddy Bray would be with her. And so, I had the privilege of knowing these people as my grandmother's friends, Papa Bray, and what was his first name, Pa, Henry Pa, Henry Pa would be there along with Elizabeth Pa. So, I was a lucky one. I was from a family who helped keep the imu alive, the, you know, the lao lao tradition, and the luau, and my aunt created the zoot suit, the original zoot suit for the beach boys to help serve the luau and things like that.

So, I was lucky to have that around me, and maybe that helped me want to dance more, being part of that scene as a real young child. Do you think, maybe, we already got a tape, okay?