Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 26, Number 9, 1 September 2009 — Kau Inoa in Colorado? Yes, you can [ARTICLE]

Kau Inoa in Colorado? Yes, you can

The Colorado Dragon Boat Festival celebrated its ninth annual event at Sloan's Lake Park, Denver, Colorado, on July 25-26, 2009. To quote Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper: "It is unique in its celebration of diverse Asian-Pacific American cultures. We're especially proud to be celebrating Hawai'i's diversity on its 50th anniversary as the 50th state in our union." To eommenee festival activities, the traditional Awakening the Dragon Opening Ceremony took plaee and Buddhist monks and other temple members chanted as dignitaries carefuhy "dotted the eyes" of the racing boats. Then a 75-foot dragon eame to life for a dragon dance. Dragon Boat racing competition was featured both days. Besides the various food and entertaimnent of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Indian, Thai and Laotian, there was also Greek, Italian, German and American representation. However, the focus this year was Hawai'i. Kau Inoa, under the sponsorship of Kahiko Aloha Enterprise and Earthplaee, shared the main exhibit tent with the Denver Mint, whieh brought a glunpse of the creation of the last state quarter, and other tables offering the history, arts, sports and crafts of Hawai'i. It was an honor to represent the building of Kau Inoa's community of registrants at this festival. Most of those who registered already knew about Kau Inoa but had not taken the time to put their name on paper. We were happy to share the experience with them. Our registrants spanned all age groups up through the 70s and the best part was how many keiki were listed. A eommon response was, "What, ean register the kids too?" Yes, you ean. ■

These snippets ofthe Colorado Dragon Boat Festival were takenfrom newspapers and brochures and compiled and submitted by Ann and Andy Lau.