Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 6, 1 June 2012 — Kumu Kahua revives ʻKāmau Aʻeʻ [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kumu Kahua revives ʻKāmau Aʻeʻ

By Aliee Milham When Alani Apio wrote his play Kāmau A 'e in the mid-'90s, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, about whieh the play revolves, was going strong, riding a wave from the 1993 centennial observance of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. A watershed event, the centennial drew 20,000 people to the 'Iolani Palaee grounds, including Apio, who was one of the actors in the centennial's January 1893 re-enactment. Mueh has changed in Hawai'i in the ensuing 15 years, including Apio's perspective of the sovereignty movement. And as Honolulu's Kumu Kahua Theatre stages a revival of Kāmau A 'e this month, he's curious to see how these changes will manifest with audiences. Like Kāmau, the first play in Apio's conceived trilogy, Kāmau A'e is a semi-autobiographical tale inspired by his youth, grow-

ing up in 'Ewa Beach as part of a displaced Pu'uloa fisher family and the cultural trauma of despair that comes with separation from the land. Like the character Alika in his play, Apio lost a cousin to suicide. Apio was educated at Kamehameha Schools in the '70s and '80s, where he took Hawaiian history from "a lovely lady who never mentioned the overthrow." It wasn't until later, taking classes with professor Haunani K. Trask at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, that Apio began to understand the reasons why. "I remember the first class was something like 'Mythology and Hawaiian History' and I thought that I was going to learn about our mythological characters, like Māui," says Apio. "I was happily shocked to find out, 'oh no, the mythology that she's talking about is the mythology we've all been told about Hawaiian history." Nowadays, with tangible gains like the State of Hawai'i's Native Hawaiian Recognition Act and settlement of a part of the decades-

long ceded-lands debt, Apio sees the thrust of the sovereignty movement as having shifted from establishing Native Hawaiian rights to acting on them. "I think we won them over, but we didn't really change our strategy to recognize that the battlefield has changed," says Apio. "We don't need to fight the rest of Hawai'i for sovereignty. The onus is now on ourselves." When KāmauA 'e was first done, Apio recalls, some Hawaiians who saw the play reacted negatively. "(The plays are) hard to take in a number of ways. Part is that, you know, unfortunately a lot of us ean relate. But it's also because I didn't try to paint us, as a people, as perfect" says Apio. "I tried to force myself to face the uglier parts of myself and us as a people." He's anticipating different reactions this time around. "I think some points are going to resonate on a deeper level, or a different level, with our people." While his work has been honSEE KĀMAU A'E ON PAGE 24

www.oha.org/kwo kwo@OHA.org NATIVE HAWAIIAN » NEWS | FEATURES | EVENTS

Charles īimlim (Miehael), left, and Will Murray (Alika) eome to terms with their individual native rights, while Lisa (Jaime Bradner) tries to intervene in Kumu Kahua Theatre's reprise of KāmauA'e. - Courtesy photos: Pacific Light Studios

KĀMAU A'E

Continued from page 22 ored with several productions in the Paeihe - in American Samoa, New

Caledonia in addition to O'ahu, Maui, Hawai'i and Kaua'i - Apio feels most proud and honored by the repeated requests his plays have had from teachers and professors, across the U.S. and Europe, who

use it in classroom discussions of colonization, imperialism and the impacts of tourism on indigenous culture. "If it's serving a good purpose, then well, that's wonderful," he says. "More than I could ever ask for." ■

Mary Aliee Kaiulani Milham, a Portland, Oregon-based freelance journalist, is a former newspaper reporter and columnist from California's Central Coast.

www.oha.org/kwo kwo@OHA.org NATIVE HAWAIIAN » NEWS | FEATURES | EVENTS

Kāmau A'e (contains strong language) WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through July 1 WHERE: Kumu Kahua Theatre, 46 Merchant St. C0ST: $20 general, $16 seniors, $10 students INF0: kumukahua.org

Raymond Rivera (Georgie) attempts to woo the "pretty haole girl," Jaime Bradner (Lisa) amid taunts from cousins Will Murray (Alika), left, and Charles Timtim (Miehael) in Kāmau A'e.