Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 4, Number 10, 1 October 1987 — Zuttermeister Honored for Dance [ARTICLE]

Zuttermeister Honored for Dance

Kau'i Zuttermeister, affectionately known to many as "Auntie Kau'i," has been awarded the Na Po'ekela Award for dance by Celebrate the Hawaiian: Ho'olako 1987, a year-long celebration of Hawaii's people, heritage and culture, and of the aloha spirit. Zuttermeister, a kumu hula for 58 years, is the only living "loea," or expert, in the hula. This title was given to her by the Bishop Museum. She has been a National Living Treasure and has received a Master of Traditional Arts award from President Ronald Reagan who invited her to be the first Hawaiian artist to participate in the Smithsonian Institution's Folklife Festival. Zuttermeister received the Na Makua Mahalo award from Brigham Young University Hawaii campus for her contributions as a composer, instrumentalist and dancer of the hula. For the past 17 years she has been the chanter in the City and County of Honolulu May Day queen program. She has been honored repeatedly for her service to the community by the Hawaii State Legislature and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Recently, this veteran kumu hula and her daughter, Noenoelani Zuttermeister Lewis, herself a hula instruc-

tor, participated in the International American Dance Festival in North Carolina. Zuttermeister credits her husband, Carl, and her unele, Pua Ha'aheo, with inspiringher interest in Hawaiian culture and in the hula. Of Ha'aheo, who was her hula teacher, Zuttermeister said: "He taught me my first real lesson of the hula, whieh is humility. In every art form, every profession, you are taught humility through diseipline, and the hula is no different." Recipients of the Na Po'okela Award, sponsored by Amfac ine., will be honored at a banquet in December.