When did you first go to Hawai‘i and why?
It was in 1993. I had often been invited by friends who live there, I was 53-years-old and ready for a change in my life. I stayed with different friends on Maui and island of Hawai‘i, and with a Hawaiian lomilomi masseur on O‘ahu while doing a course in Polynesian studies.
What else did you do there?
As I was writing for various publications at the time, I interviewed Hawaiian cultural practitioners, which inevitably brought me into contact with hula. I did my first class on Maui with esteemed hula master Kumu Hōkūlani Haila Hi‘ileiali‘i Holt Padilla, then on island of Hawai‘i with Kumu Mauli Ola Cook from Kaua‘i.
What do you love about hula?
That the words come first, that it’s a dance that follows a storyline — as a writer that couldn’t be more appealing. Also the fact that Hawaiians really like old people
dancing hula.
What else did you love about the Hawaiian Islands?
Visiting the volcano deity Pele, who I was taken to pay respects to as soon as I landed on the island of Hawai‘i. I felt a bit burnt out — visually quite like the devastated landscape of hardened lava around the volcano, which is still erupting in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park to this day. Then I saw hundreds of tiny little green ferns pushing up through cracks in the charred black tar. Luminescent, iridescent, fluorescent — they were just radiating and glistening with the promise of new life.
How many times have you been back?
Perhaps a dozen. I find there’s always more to learn about hula and the culture. Plus it’s fun being thought exotic, because Aussies come from so far away and our accent’s considered charming. For me, it somehow always feels like coming home.
What is your favourite Hawaiian Island and why?
O‘ahu, because my main hula teacher lives in Kailua, followed by the island of Hawai‘i for visiting Pele.
What do you like to do when you’re there?
Hang out with my hula teachers, take classes, watch hula, catch up with my Hawai‘i friends, visit Pele, drive around and see the places we dance about. I also love going to the Merrie Monarch Festival (a cultural festival held on the island of Hawai‘i the week after Easter), and eating poke, lomi salmon, huli-huli chicken and kalua pig, which is cooked in an underground oven, and drinking pineapple wine. I usually go shopping for hula costume fabrics and visit the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet & Marketplace.
When did you found Byron Bay Hula/Mana Aloha Troupe?
I formed a trio of hula dancers called The Hulahines in 2006. The group had just disbanded in 2012 and I was lying in John Flynn Hospital on the Gold Coast after a hip replacement when the voice that has always guided me said, ‘You’re going back to Byron to start a hula troupe’. I laughed and said, ‘You’re kidding, I’m 70 and just about to have a second hip replaced’. The voice told me to think about it. I did, and it made me smile. Thirteen years later I’m still smiling.
How many members do you have?
It varies. Sometimes we lose longtime members when they move away. At present we have eight.
Where do you perform?
Wherever we’re asked! Private parties, anniversaries, celebrations of life, fundraisers, festivals, schools, aged care centres and all kinds of community events.
How would you say Hawai‘i has changed your life?
The image of rebirth and vision of new possibilities I saw at my first visit to Pele’s volcano stayed with me as a life-changing marker. Some of my mum’s ashes are buried there and so will mine be. The practice of aloha, which I learned through hula, has been of immeasurable benefit to me. And hula has given me the gift of being able to share that aloha with my hula family in our wider community.
