Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 6, 1 June 2011 — Merrie Monarch is high drama at its finest [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Merrie Monarch is high drama at its finest

One of my favorite songs fromthe 1960s is "Memories" sung by Elvis Presley, the King himself. "Memories

pressed between the pages of my Mind. Memories, sweetened through the Ages just like wine..." I thought of the song driving to Hilo from Waimea for this year's 48th Merrie Monarch Festival at the Edith Kanaka'ole Tennis Stadium. On long drives I "daydream" about a lot of things. It's a challenge those of us who live on A/īnVn O orr mo'o

(accustomed) to as "daydreaming" helps make long drives on our Big Island appear short. I'm sure it's the same for you who have to drive far for whatever reason or purpose no matter where you are. I remember my mom writing this long letter to me in 1964 about a "hula pageant" she had seen in Hilo. She was so taken, overwhelmed by all she had seen. If my abacus is correct she saw the second Merrie Monarch Festival (and a eouple more thereafter as she died in 1974). I was a 10th grader at Kamehameha. Now I wish I had saved her letter. Her description of that Merrie Monarch was priceless. She had her own special way with words. Her writing was simple (as writing should be) but when writing she was always regal in expression and elegant in description. If she were alive today she would be 94 years old and in greater awe of Merrie Monarch, impressed at how it has evolved in half a century from 1964 to 2011. (Kumu Hula Sonny Ching said it so well in an interview some time ago, "As time evolves, hula evolves.") She would be pleasantly surprised at everything about Merrie Monarch: the eminenee and spirit of eaeh presentation (Miss Aloha Hula, Kahiko and 'Auwana, Wāhine and Kāne); the Kumu Hula, the oli, the mele, the choreogra-

phy, the artistry: the beauty of eaeh evening from entry and exit of the Royal Court, the pule by Kahu Wendell Davis of Kamehameha Schools-Kea'au Campus

and Pastor at Kahikolu Church to the singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "Hawai'i Pono'I" by four young ladies with angel voices from Waiākea High School. And I know Unele George Nā'ope and Auntie Dottie Thompson were both smiling down on us at this the Super Bowl of Hula, where the best of

the best eome to Hilo to compete and to honor what Mō'I Kalākaua, the Merrie Monarch himself, said about Hula, "Hula is the language of the heart and therefore the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people." Alongside thousands of others, my wife and I witnessed all three nights of competition. Being at this great event is exhilarating. To hear the haunting chants and beautiful voices raised in song, to see the precision of the dancers doing Kahiko and the gracefulness of the dancers doing 'Auwana, to smell the fragrance of the freshly made ti leaf skirts and the maile, plumeria, pīkake and pua kenikeni leis, to hear the best voices in Hawai'i live from Keali'i Reichel, Manu Boyd, Amy Gilliom, Kama Hopkins, John Koko, Nani Lim, Robert Cazimero and many, many others; to be there seeing the Best in Hawai'i and the World; Chanting, Singing and Dancing; enjoying eaeh night with thousands of others is electrifying, big time "ehieken skin," real special. Merrie Monarch is High Drama at its Finest. My mom closed her 1974 letter with words to this effect: "I wish everyone could win. They all work so hard." I should have written back, "Ma, no worry, being at Merrie Monarch makes them all winners." ■

Rūbert K. Lindsey, Jr. Trustee, Hawai'i