sneak peek at Polynesian culture

-
Hawaii is geographically part of the Polynesia, a region in the central and the southern parts of the Pacific Ocean. These are some of the most remote islands in the planet and I had the opportunity to fly to some of these islands via United Airlines' Island Hopper route last year. I just stayed in the airports back then because we were just literally island hopping. 

This time around, I thought I might be able to see a bit more of the culture when my tour group made a lunch stop at the Polynesian Cultural Centre in Laie. There were potentially six villages we could visit to see the different cultural exhibits: Samoa, Fiji, Hawaii, Tonga, Tahiti, and Aotearoa. However, we were just passing by (from the Hukilau Marketplace to the barbecue lunch) so everything I had was just a sample of the cake called Polynesia.


One of the things I noticed was the hand sign demonstrated by the statue outside the centre... I understand that it is called shaka and it means "hang loose" (among surfers... and there are plenty in Hawaii) and "Aloha spirit" (the signature way people greet each other in Hawaii).


Peppered throughout the centre (and even in the Hukilau Marketplace) are statues that represent Polynesian deities or ancient ancestors. Though uniquely Polynesian, I somehow get reminded of the bul-ul, the male rice deity I've seen in Ifugao. Is it possible that there's similarity among the Filipino cultures and these Polynesian cultures?



Perhaps. I was in conversation with a former classmates many years ago about Polynesians possibly descending from aboriginal Taiwanese. I couldn't believe what I was hearing at the time, until I bumped into an article about it at the National Geographic.

I wish I had a bit more time to roam around the Polynesian Cultural Centre. It's supposed to be the most rapid way for me to take in some of the culture without actually flying to the different countries. However, I only had a limited time on Oahu, so I had to skip quite a few of the tours... including the interesting story about Laie, where Adventists settled and built schools for the locals.


As I was walking back to the bus after lunch, I noticed this statue; at first, I thought that he was holding a regular guitar. But it's a Hawaiian steel guitar... and this is a statue honouring Joseph Kekuku, the guy who invented the instrument. And he's holding it atypical from how others hold their guitars. A bit of reading led me to the "lap guitar", which means he played it the way the statue portrayed him.


A fascinating glance at Polynesian culture indeed. One day, I'll be back in Hawaii and I'd like to immerse myself a bit more into the culture... aside from the luaus and the food, of course.

I hope that this day in the future won't be as distant as the gap between my first trip out here and this one.

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe...
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in...
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma...
Read more