Members of the hula hālau Unukupukupu have been invited back to the in 2013 after opening the festival last year with a performance on the main stage that thrilled the international audience.

Taupōuri Tangarō and four other members of Unukupukupu will travel to Washington, D.C. this summer and take part in the upcoming 2013 Folklife Festival program, “One World, Many Voices: Endangered Languages and Cultural Heritage.”

As a preview to Hawaiʻi’s participation in the 2013 Folklife Festival, the Smithsonian produced a in which Tangarō, a hula professor at Hawaiʻi CC, describes the connection between the Native Hawaiian language and hula.

“If there’s a hula dance, there’s words,” Tangarō says in the video. “We can’t dance without narrative. The language is how we communicate to our universe. People think hula is choreography. Hula is first a language that has a choreographical piece to it.”

View the video on the .

Second year of 糖心视频 participation in Folklife Festival

Last year, the University of Hawaiʻi was among 20 public land-grant universities featured in the 2012 Smithsonian Folklife Festival program, “Campus and Community.” Dozens of faculty, staff, students and supporting community members affiliated with 糖心视频 traveled to the festival and shared Native Hawaiian culture with the attendees.

The Smithsonian is funding Unukupukupu’s trip this year, and Tangarō said it was a thrill to be invited back.

“It is a privilege to demonstrate the role hula plays in the reacquisition of Hawaiian language as well as the significant role language plays in hula,” Tangarō said. “Hula is mostly known throughout the world as the exotic dance of Hawaiʻi so it’s advantageous to step onto a national platform and speak to the other aspects of hula that are largely underrepresented if they are represented at all.”

— Article contributed by Hawaiʻi Community College External Relations Coordinator Thatcher Moats

The wrapped up the 10 day with an impromptu closing ceremony that came more than an hour ahead of schedule.

Weather forecasts predicting thundershowers and hail in the area forced the premature closure. That didn’t dampen the spirits of the 糖心视频 contingent.

The festival was a triumph for the 80-member delegation from the University of Hawaiʻi System.

糖心视频 Mānoa’s Tuahine Troupe performed at The Kennedy Center and Hawaiʻi Community College’s .

The delegation endured 100 degree temperatures to proudly with more than a million eager visitors from around the world.

The visitors learned about hula, taro pounding and farming, aquaponics, lomi lomi and Hawaiian health and healing, lauhala weaving and non-instrument navigation.

The visitors will never forget their experiences, but neither will their teachers.

A thunderstorm during the first week of the festival toppled the 糖心视频 exhibit tent and wreaked havoc on the festival site but delegates were resilient. After a day of , stronger than ever.

Participants say they will never forget the cultural exchanges, the people they met from all over the world, and the pride they felt in reaching and touching so many people through the Hawaiian culture.

The university’s participation in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival was made possible, in part by, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Hawaiʻi Convention Center and the University of Hawaiʻi Foundation.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The University of Hawaiʻi will be among 20 public land-grant universities to be featured in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. from June 27 to July 8, 2012.

The festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act, which paved the way for higher education for rural and working class Americans.

The University of Hawaiʻi exhibits will feature traditional Hawaiian health and healing practices, a mini taro patch, non-instrument navigation, medicinal herb and organic farming and much more. Hawaiʻi Community College’s halau Unukupukupu and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Tuahine Troup will also perform.

The Tuahine Troupe from at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, performed at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. on Friday, July 6, 2012.

The performance on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage was part of the 2012 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

The has welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors to its exhibit tents during this year’s .

糖心视频ors have tried hula, lauhala weaving and taro pounding. They also learned about navigating by the stars, lomi lomi, aquaponics and taro patches.

The exhibit, however, has been about more than the University of Hawaiʻi. It has been about the community working together.

糖心视频 惭腻苍辞补 alumnus Rick Barboza co-owns , one of the largest Native Hawaiian plant nurseries in Hawaiʻi. The company transported the taro patch exhibit and aquaponics plants free of charge.

“We brought over nine boxes of plants—it was a six-foot-tall pallet of plants and there was a lot of plants that we were able to bring up,” said Barboza. “Now we got a loʻi. Now we got a nice aquaponics system that features some native plants and Polynesian introduced plants,” said Barboza.

Hui Kū Maoli Ola also transported decorative plants used for 糖心视频 exhibits and presentations.

“It was good, it helped to spruce up the place and really provide a sense of place for all the Hawaiians that are here,” said Barboza.

brought some of its young people to the Folklife Festival to showcase its Farmwork to Higher Education Program, which allows young people to work part-time on the farm in exchange for a monthly stipend and a scholarship to Leeward Community College.

Derrick Kiyabu of Maʻo Farms says there challenges and opportunities in Waiʻanae. “What we want to do is increase and equalize access to higher education out there.”

And it’s working. The youngsters from Maʻo Farms are troopers and handling the summer heat well as they proudly share their knowledge of agriculture with more than a million visitors at the Folklife Festival.

Kiyabu says he brought the five young people to D.C. to “show people what we’re about.” He also wanted them to “get out of Hawaiʻi and see that people all across the nation are interested in what we are doing.”

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The University of Hawaiʻi will be among 20 public land-grant universities to be featured in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. from June 27 to July 8, 2012.

The festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act, which paved the way for higher education for rural and working class Americans.

The University of Hawaiʻi exhibits will feature traditional Hawaiian health and healing practices, a mini taro patch, non-instrument navigation, medicinal herb and organic farming and much more. Hawaiʻi Community College’s halau Unukupukupu and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Tuahine Troup will also perform.

The fourth of July brought crowds of people to the exhibits at the . Wall to wall people enjoyed the Hawaiian culture and many say their interest in visiting the islands has been renewed for many different reasons.

“I like the down to earth culture and respect they have for the earth and crafts,” said exhibit visitor John Sackett. “It ties in with the earth and everything they create from it.”

“I saw everybody in a circle as a community weaving bracelets and I was attracted to that, I wanted to be part of that. As soon as I asked to be a part of it, they were wanting me to come in,” said exhibit visitor Meaghan Tine. “That was special. I liked that a lot.”

Kurt Dewhurst, campus and community curator of the Smithsonian Institution said the University of Hawaiʻi’s exhibits are not only promoting the university as the leading indigenous serving institution but also serves as an authentic marketing vehicle.

“The Hawaiian program is clearly one of the most popular programs and most interesting because of the depths of the presentations and the great aloha spirit of all the participants,” said Dewhurst.

Dewhurst said he’s certain that Hawaiʻi will see a boost in tourism because of the university’s participation in the Folklife Festival, which sees more than a million visitors annually.

“We know from visitor studies and also follow up research that travel and tourism offices did see a real bump,” Dewhurst said. “People say that the first time they saw that was at the festival and they always wanted to make a trip.”

糖心视频ors are getting hands-on experience— weaving lauhala bracelets, pounding taro and learning the hula and how to play the ukulele.

These moments are priceless for these visitors who are experiencing a piece of Hawaiʻi without getting on a plane.

“I think what’s nice about the festival is you get beyond the kind of surface level of the story that people see through marketing and they actually meet Hawaiian people,” Dewhurst said. “To meet people and share their traditions in such honest and genuine ways is a very powerful, teachable moment,” Dewhurst said.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The University of Hawaiʻi will be among 20 public land-grant universities to be featured in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. from June 27 to July 8, 2012.

The festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act, which paved the way for higher education for rural and working class Americans.

The University of Hawaiʻi exhibits will feature traditional Hawaiian health and healing practices, a mini taro patch, non-instrument navigation, medicinal herb and organic farming and much more. Hawaiʻi Community College’s halau Unukupukupu and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Tuahine Troup will also perform.

The contingent is having a far-reaching effect at the . 糖心视频ors from Europe, South Africa and around the globe are experiencing Hawaiian crafts—from feather lei making to lauhala weaving. They’re learning about woodcarving and makahiki games.

The 1.5 million people coming through the 10-day festival are also pounding taro and making poi. They’re learning about Hawaiian health and healing through lomi lomi or Hawaiian massage.

Members of hula hālau Unukupukupu are holding hula workshops to share their knowledge of the traditional dance.

Professor Trina Nahm-Mijo said she is the oldest hālau member performing at the festival, and this experience was on her bucket list.

“I’m having the time of my life performing for hundreds of people and teaching people from around the world about our traditional dances and the Hawaiian culture,” Nahm-Mijo said.

Hālau members are also busy teaching visitors how to make a Hawaiian musical instrument called ʻūkēkē out of balsam wood and fishing wire.

Teenagers were especially interested in making an instrument of their own.

“It makes a very soft sound. And in Hawaiʻi, if somebody comes really close to you to hear that soft sound, it’s really kind of intimate. So that’s why they consider it a love call,” said ʻūkēkē workshop instructor Alohilani Adachi-Jose, of Hawaiʻi Community College in Hilo.

Washington, D.C. resident Stephon Vandergrift, 15, said it was fairly simple to make the instrument and play it.

“It’s not hard, It’s just movement of the hands. They say it helps you get women Hawaiʻi,” said Vandergrift.

Vandergrift was overwhelmed by the attention from his ʻūkēkē; instructors and joined them in an impromptu song that attracted a crowd. But the shy 15-year-old took in all the attention鈥� and the Hawaiian culture.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The University of Hawaiʻi will be among 20 public land-grant universities to be featured in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. from June 27 to July 8, 2012.

The festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act, which paved the way for higher education for rural and working class Americans.

The University of Hawaiʻi exhibits will feature traditional Hawaiian health and healing practices, a mini taro patch, non-instrument navigation, medicinal herb and organic farming and much more. Hawaiʻi Community College’s halau Unukupukupu and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Tuahine Troup will also perform.

The resilient contingent worked together Sunday morning, July 1 to pick up the pieces and prepare for the re-opening of the .

The Smithsonian Institution shut down the festival on Saturday, June 30 after a severe thunderstorm toppled the 糖心视频 exhibit tent.

“We have a good bunch of people and the camaraderie is real positive, so we all worked together and we can get things done pretty fast,” said 糖心视频 Extension Agent Glenn Teves.

“Everybody’s going around making sure that everybody’s okay. People have been showing us a lot of aloha and making sure that we’re all right,” said Rick Barboza, 糖心视频 alumnus and owner of plant nursery .

糖心视频 was lucky—there wasn’t any damage to equipment and exhibits under the tent and only minor damage to the thatched hut and aquaponics system.

Elsewhere, exhibits were flattened. Washington and Oregon State found their tents were gone with the wind and their exhibits scattered across the National Mall.

Tent contractors worked through Saturday, and by Sunday the fallen tents were resurrected and it was business as usual.

“We set up a washing station and we had to scrub every surface that we had. Some of them were ripped, some of them have chunks out of them, but we reassembled and we were actually up and running on time this morning,” said Kathy Barnard, .

Crowds were thick as they visited the 糖心视频 exhibits to learned about makahiki games, woodcarving, Native Hawaiian plants and hula.

A major storm was a minor setback for 20 public land-grant universities proudly showcasing their cultures and specialties once again.

“I think the whole community pulled together and it’s a beautiful day and there’s a great vibe going on and a lot of people coming through,” Barnard said.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The University of Hawaiʻi will be among 20 public land-grant universities to be featured in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. from June 27 to July 8, 2012.

The festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act, which paved the way for higher education for rural and working class Americans.

The University of Hawaiʻi exhibits will feature traditional Hawaiian health and healing practices, a mini taro patch, non-instrument navigation, medicinal herb and organic farming and much more. Hawaiʻi Community College’s halau Unukupukupu and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Tuahine Troup will also perform.

Despite a weather advisory and temperatures hovering between 102 and 105 degrees on Friday, the went on as scheduled.

faculty member and author Maya Soetoro-Ng braved the heat to visit colleagues and 糖心视频 exhibits on The National Mall where she said more than a million visitors will learn about the importance of the preservation of tradition and the power of harnessing indigenous culture.

“I also think it’s terrific that the university is having this opportunity to share and collaborate with other institutions and to have conversations of import and I think that the connections that are being forged here will probably be lasting,” Soetoro-Ng said.

University of Hawaiʻi delegates are having many opportunities to exchange cultural experiences with other public land-grant universities and colleges that are being featured in the festival.

糖心视频 students took part in a healing ritual at the exhibit where traditional healers Tonita Gonzales and Rita Navarrete Perez led the group in asking for health, wisdom, illumination of heart, strength and spirit.

糖心视频 students and other participants held drums and bells and other instruments and rattled them during the ritual.

糖心视频 health and healing experts received healing treatments from New Mexico’s healers, who in turn received lomi lomi treatments from 糖心视频 experts.

New Mexico’s healers presented, Keola Chan of 糖心视频 Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine’s , with a ceremonial headband and sash that are said to protect the healer’s energy.

“To me, it was about reconnecting as a people, bonding once again those relationships that we traditionally had when our ancestors used to sail,” said Chan.

In turn, Chan offered Navarrete Perez traditional Hawaiian ʻawa, which she accepted with gratitude.

“How important for us it is to share our sacred medicine from your beautiful country. And I feel the responsibility to share this experience to the people that come close to me in my life,” said Navarrete Perez, a traditional healer working with the University of New Mexico exhibit.

Experiences like this is what the festival is all about.

“Hopefully, the relationships, the two way flows will lead to other interesting projects of culture awareness and sharing and collaboration in the future,” Soetoro-Ng said.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The University of Hawaiʻi will be among 20 public land-grant universities to be featured in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. from June 27 to July 8, 2012.

The festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act, which paved the way for higher education for rural and working class Americans.

The University of Hawaiʻi exhibits will feature traditional Hawaiian health and healing practices, a mini taro patch, non-instrument navigation, medicinal herb and organic farming and much more. Hawaiʻi Community College’s halau Unukupukupu and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Tuahine Troup will also perform.

The has a huge presence at this year’s in Washington, D.C., where students, faculty, staff and a supporting community are sharing their knowledge of agriculture, Hawaiian health and healing, aquaponics and other specialties with more than a million visitors from around the world.

That hasn’t escaped Hawaiʻi’s congressional delegation, which, along with Governor Neil Abercrombie, hosted a mahalo reception for festival participants in the nation’s capitol on June 28.

糖心视频 hula hālau chanted and danced, and Senator Daniel Akaka’s rendition of the Hawaiian Lullaby received resounding applause.

“I’m so proud to be amongst you here from Hawaiʻi because you’re just one of 20 universities in this country that was invited to be part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival,” Akaka said.

Senior Senator Daniel Inouye expressed pride and support for the university’s work in reaching up to 1.5 million people on The National Mall.

“The Hawaiʻi delegation is extremely proud of the work you’re doing and we’d like to welcome the 80 糖心视频 students and faculty members who have come here to show the rest of the world and the rest of the nation that we in Hawaiʻi are now number one,” Inouye said.

“People on the mall coming by and they see what Hawaiʻi is, it is the only way we are going to get everyone to understand how special a place Hawaiʻi is, how wonderful aloha is and what it all means,鈥� said U.S. Representative Colleen Hanabusa.

Congressional leaders say a world stage like the Smithsonian Folklife Festival can only help boost Hawaiʻi’s tourism industry, spark and increase interest in continuing research in specialties like aquaponics, and raise the potential for millions of dollars in research grants.

“There are a lot of people who are very interested in sustainability issues in terms of food and I think this is a revelation to them that there was a culture, that they protected the ʻaina,” said U.S. Representative Mazie Hirono.

“I don’t know that there’s ever been a time when I’ve been prouder of the university and more conscious of the very special role that the University of Hawaiʻi plays here in the United States today,” said 糖心视频 President M.R.C. Greenwood.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The University of Hawaiʻi will be among 20 public land-grant universities to be featured in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. from June 27 to July 8, 2012.

The festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act, which paved the way for higher education for rural and working class Americans.

The University of Hawaiʻi exhibits will feature traditional Hawaiian health and healing practices, a mini taro patch, non-instrument navigation, medicinal herb and organic farming and much more. Hawaiʻi Community College’s halau Unukupukupu and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Tuahine Troup will also perform.

The led the opening of this year’s in Washington, D.C., where hula hālau Unukupukupu from , took the main stage and thrilled the international crowd.

Then the hālau led 糖心视频 President M.R.C. Greenwood, university administrators, students, faculty and community supporters as they all blew conch shells to signal the start of the long-awaited festival. The 糖心视频 delegation then led 19 other public land-grant universities and colleges to the heart of the cultural festival.

“What we’re celebrating here in Washington is the value and the contributions of the indigenous people, as well as the impact of the modern research university and the combination of celebrating our past and heralding our future,” said Greenwood.

More than a million people are expected to visit the Smithsonian Folklife Festival over the next two weeks. Several visitors from Germany and Switzerland stopped at the 糖心视频 exhibit and said they had never seen hula before.

Others got reacquainted with their roots by pounding poi at the taro patch exhibit. Former Hawaiʻi resident Norene Gerstner said she moved to Virginia in 1973.

“This is unique because I’ve never done this before and I’m just thrilled by this whole poi experience and I’m going to raise my own taro, make my own poi,” said Gerstner.

The said it was a sight to see people from all over the world experiencing the Hawaiian culture, and one of the reasons OHA helped sponsor the University of Hawaiʻi’s participation in this once in a lifetime event.

“OHA stands by to assist and work with the university as we continue to lead in research to help create a healthy Hawaiʻi community,” said OHA Chair Colette Machado.

“For the University of Hawaiʻi, it’s a great opportunity to share culture, heritage and the work in terms of research academia,” said OHA CEO Kamanaʻopono Crabbe.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The University of Hawaiʻi will be among 20 public land-grant universities to be featured in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. from June 27 to July 8, 2012.

The festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act, which paved the way for higher education for rural and working class Americans.

The University of Hawaiʻi exhibits will feature traditional Hawaiian health and healing practices, a mini taro patch, non-instrument navigation, medicinal herb and organic farming and much more. Hawaiʻi Community College’s halau Unukupukupu and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Tuahine Troup will also perform.

University of Hawaiʻi students, faculty, staff and supporting community members moved onto the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on June 26, where they will showcase hula, a taro patch, aquaponics and a host of other exhibits at the starting the next day.

Most of the delegates spent their first day in D.C. putting their exhibits together.

Participants said they’re going with the flow, making do with what they have—even if it isn’t what they’re used to at home.

Loʻi

Hiapo Cashman, director of 糖心视频 Mānoa’s , oversees the taro patch.

“The soil is from here (D.C.). Apparently, it’s from Home Depot or something, so it’s way different from what we’re used to using,” said Cashman.

(Watch for more on their exhibit.)

Aquaponics

At the aquaponics exhibit where fish feed plants and plants feed fish, there were no fish. Students scrambled to find 30 goldfish at a D.C. pet shop.

“At home, we use tilapia. Big tilapia. We have liʻi liʻi (small) fish here that costs 27 cents each,” said 糖心视频 Mānoa graduate student Ilima Ho-Lastimosa.

In addition, the plants are adjusting to less expensive clay balls, which students also purchased in D.C.

“At home, we use cinder. Of course, we got Mama Pele at home with all the lava, so cinder is abundant. Here, it’s about 10 times the price,” Ho Lastimosa said.

(Learn more about the aquaponics exhibit in Aquaponics program preparing for D.C.)

APLU Conference

While the set-up was in full swing, 糖心视频 President M.R.C. Greenwood joined educational and business leaders including Bill Gates, at the conference celebrating the 150th anniversary of public land-grant universities.

Greenwood participated in a panel discussion on agriculture and natural resources.

“Being able to find highly productive crops that can grow in difficult circumstances and feed people who are very deprived is one of the things that the land-grant universities have always focused on,” Greenwood said.

It is what the University of Hawaii will showcase over the next two weeks as more than a million people visit the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The University of Hawaiʻi will be among 20 public land-grant universities to be featured in the in Washington D.C. from June 27 to July 8, 2012.

The festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act, which paved the way for higher education for rural and working class Americans.

The University of Hawaiʻi exhibits will feature traditional Hawaiian health and healing practices, a mini taro patch, non-instrument navigation, medicinal herb and organic farming and much more. Hawaiʻi Community College’s halau Unukupukupu and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Tuahine Troup will also perform.

See more on the University of Hawaiʻi’s Smithsonian experience.

Unukupukupu, a hula hālau from Hawaiʻi Community College, performed at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. on June 26, 2012.

The hālau received a prestigious invitation from the , part of a series aimed at promoting traditional, ethnic and regional music and dance that is homegrown in communities across the United States.

Unukupukupu consists of 25 faculty members, staff and students from and . The hālau performed a free, one-hour show and will also be performing at the on the National Mall starting Wednesday, June 27.

The group is part of an 80-member 糖心视频 delegation that will be showcasing the university and community in exhibits that will be seen by more than a million people.

Watch to see the hālau prepare for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The University of Hawaiʻi will be among 20 public land-grant universities to be featured in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. from June 27 to July 8, 2012.

The festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act, which paved the way for higher education for rural and working class Americans.

The University of Hawaiʻi exhibits will feature traditional Hawaiian health and healing practices, a mini taro patch, non-instrument navigation, medicinal herb and organic farming and much more. Hawaiʻi Community College’s halau Unukupukupu and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Tuahine Troup will also perform.

There was a major gathering of the country’s educational leaders at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Monday, June 25. Approximately 75 presidents of public land-grant colleges and universities gathered to celebrate the man who helped make higher education possible for the working class citizen.

President M.R.C. Greenwood and Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw walked in a procession of presidents and paid tribute to Abraham Lincoln and his role in the passage of the Morrill Act of 1862. Prior to the Morrill Act, higher education was accessible mostly to the wealthy who could afford tuition at private and religious colleges.

There was a presentation of colors by the Joint Armed Forces Color Guard from the Military District of Washington, a wreath laying ceremony on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and a class photo of the leaders of public land-grant universities and colleges, to mark the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act.

The event is part of this year’s . The University of Hawaiʻi is one of 20 public land-grant universities and colleges being featured in the festival on the National Mall.

“This is a wonderful time for the University of Hawaiʻi to be highlighted because our history is so special and different from many of the other land-grant universities,” said Greenwood.

About 80 糖心视频 students, faculty, staff and community members will showcase the university’s work. Exhibits will feature taro farmers, aquaponics experts, non-instrument navigators and Hawaiian health and healing experts.

“We can, with great pride, show off our relationships with building an indigenous culture—explaining it, teaching it. But also we want to make sure everyone knows we are a part of this new century too and very much an active and important research university,” Greenwood said.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The University of Hawaiʻi will be among 20 public land-grant universities to be featured in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. from June 27 to July 8, 2012.

The festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act, which paved the way for higher education for rural and working class Americans.

The University of Hawaiʻi exhibits will feature traditional Hawaiian health and healing practices, a mini taro patch, non-instrument navigation, medicinal herb and organic farming and much more. Hawaiʻi Community College’s halau Unukupukupu and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Tuahine Troup will also perform.

The King Kamehameha Statue at Emancipation Hall at the U.S. Capitol united Hawaiʻi residents and former Hawaiʻi residents currently living in Washington, D.C.

“King Kamehameha played such a pivotal role in uniting the islands of Hawaiʻi and building what we have as a culture today,” said Kohono Mossman, president of the Hawaiʻi State Society of Washington, D.C.

The culture and the king are what they celebrated at the 43rd annual lei draping ceremony, held each June to coincide with King Kamehameha Day in Hawaiʻi.

The Hawaiʻi State Society in D.C. officiates the ceremony to promote Hawaiʻi’s culture and the aloha spirit. The group also teaches people from all walks of life about the Hawaiian culture, and helps former Hawaiʻi residents living in D.C.

“We just try to promote opportunities for people from Hawaiʻi who are up here, who want to get back with their culture, want to talk to people, to have the opportunities for them to do so,鈥� said Kohono Mossman, president of the Hawaiʻi State Society.

For the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the annual event is Congressional recognition of one of the founding leaders that united the Hawaiian Kingdom.

OHA chair Colette Machado says the Kamehameha statute’s new location in Emancipation Hall is proof of great progress toward federal recognition.

Millions of visitors come to Emancipation Hall each year. “They will know that Hawaiians are in the house,” Machado said.

OHA helped sponsor the University of Hawaiʻi’s participation in this year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which is also uniting former and current Hawaiʻi residents who will celebrate Hawaiʻi’s culture with more than a million visitors from around the world.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The University of Hawaiʻi will be among 20 public land-grant universities to be featured in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. from June 27 to July 8, 2012.

The festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act, which paved the way for higher education for rural and working class Americans.

The University of Hawaiʻi exhibits will feature traditional Hawaiian health and healing practices, a mini taro patch, non-instrument navigation, medicinal herb and organic farming and much more. Hawaiʻi Community College’s halau Unukupukupu and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Tuahine Troup will also perform.

Ruth Terna has had two heart attacks as a result of a childhood illness that damaged her heart. After her last heart attack in 2010, she lost her confidence. She was afraid to physically exert herself.

“I felt like I was a heart attack waiting to happen,” said Terna.

Then she entered the HELA study—the . HELA is a five-year study evaluating the impact of hula on patients who had been hospitalized for cardiac problems.

The Department of Native Hawaiian Health and Queen’s Medical Center, studied 60 cardiac patients—30 received traditional care and 30 took part in a 12-week hula class. The class was one hour, three times a week.

“We found out that hula can be as rigorous as a basketball or a tennis game if you dance it continuously,” said Mele Look, director of the .

But researchers are finding that the benefits from hula goes beyond exercise. The mental and spiritual gains are proving just as beneficial.

“Which is the connection of the mental and the connection of the physical which we must acknowledge helps with healing,” said Look.

“You felt better, your body felt better. How do you describe the spirituality that you feel?” said Terna. “This feeling of caring, of working together to get better.”

Kumu Hula Mapuana de Silva led the hula classes and remembers one man who was in hospice, his heart working at 15 percent. He left the hospice within weeks of starting hula lessons.

“By the time we got to the end of the program, he was doing laps. It helped him not just physically, but spiritually,” said de Silva.

Stories like this will be shared with more than a million international visitors at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Look will be joining approximately 80 糖心视频 delegates headed to Washington D.C.

HELA’s findings will be used to develop a cardiac rehabilitation program based on hula.

Through the course of the HELA study de Silva said, “You could see the confidence build, you could see the rosiness in their cheeks come back, you could see the twinkle in their eyes come back.”

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The University of Hawaiʻi will be among 20 public land-grant universities to be featured in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. from June 27 to July 8, 2012.

The festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act, which paved the way for higher education for rural and working class Americans.

The University of Hawaiʻi exhibits will feature traditional Hawaiian health and healing practices, a mini taro patch, non-instrument navigation, medicinal herb and organic farming and much more. Hawaiʻi Community College’s halau Unukupukupu and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Tuahine Troup will also perform.

Deep in the back of , sits an aquaponics research facility and agriculture classroom. The field is dotted with water tanks and plant beds filled with lush produce.

“Most of our energy, most of our food is imported. And we’re running out of places to grow food. And that’s why this work is being done because we don’t require soil,” said Clyde Tamaru, extension specialist for the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s .

Aquaponics is a combination of growing plants in water and raising aquatic animals like fish. Each helps the other survive and thrive.

Tamaru and his students will be joining about 80 糖心视频 delegates at this year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. They’re replicating an aquaponics system right on the National Mall to educate 1.5 million visitors who are expected to attend the annual festival.

Tamaru is counting on his students to demonstrate how to grow their own food with little effort.

“You can use aquaponics in the city, you can use it in the country, you could use it, as long as you have some sun,” said 糖心视频 Mānoa Hawaiian studies graduate student Leinaʻala Bright.

The system funnels the old fish water that contains nutrient-filled fish waste, from the water tanks to the plants.

“So we’re recycling the nutrient rich water to plants. The plants actually will take up the nutrients, and by the time it (the water) goes back to the fish tank, we have clean water,” Tamaru said.

The recycled water means the plants need significantly less water to survive. In fact, aquaponics uses only 5 percent of the water normally needed to grow comparable produce.

“Basically, the reason I do aquaponics is because there are no weeds, you’re really not bending over to get to the ground and the growth rate is very much accelerated,” 糖心视频 Mānoa Hawaiian studies student Ilima Ho-Lastimosa said.

Ho-Lastimosa is the program director of God’s Country in Waimānalo, where she teaches the community how to grow simple, organic food in their backyards at a one-time cost of about $300.

“We definitely can grow and eat our own food. All we’ve got to do is choose to. Food sovereignty is the biggest and most powerful thing you can have for yourself and your family,” Ho-Lastimosa said.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The University of Hawaiʻi will be among 20 public land-grant universities to be featured in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. from June 27 to July 8, 2012.

The festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act, which paved the way for higher education for rural and working class Americans.

The University of Hawaiʻi exhibits will feature traditional Hawaiian health and healing practices, a mini taro patch, non-instrument navigation, medicinal herb and organic farming and much more. Hawaiʻi Community College’s halau Unukupukupu and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Tuahine Troup will also perform.

There’s a small taro farm nestled next to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Hawaiian studies department that will be getting some international attention this summer.

Ka Papa Loʻi ʻO Kānewai will be featured on the National Mall in Washington D.C. for two weeks in June and July, as part of the . About 1.5 million visitors attend the annual event where this year, they’ll be treated to an authentic taro patch right on the National Mall.

“Trying to copy what we’re doing here on a little bigger scale and then taking it to the mall is a little challenging, but I think we’re really excited to be sharing what we do here,” said Ka Papa Loʻi ʻO Kānewai Director Hiapo Cashman.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to educate and get as many people excited about what we do here in Hawaiʻi,” said graduate student Summer Maunakea.

Maunakea and other students created a four-foot by six-foot taro patch in their outdoor classroom, that they will replicate on the National Mall during the festival.

The taro farming students will be among the 80 糖心视频 delegates who will share their knowledge with visitors from around the world, including how they plant, grow and harvest 69 Hawaiian varieties of taro.

“There’s a lot of important things Hawaiians did traditionally to farm. So if we take some time to slow down and look at our history, a lot of the answers are there already,” Cashman said.

Cashman has taught his students how to nourish the taro without the use of fertilizer. Students crush old leaves and plants to feed their taro.

“Trying to incorporate traditional ways of planting and doing it today modernly will help diseases, with all kinds of pests that are plaguing our different crops,” Cashman said.

“Hopefully, it’s something that the visitors and the people at the Smithsonian can kind of take with them and apply to their own communities that they live in,” Maunakea said.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The University of Hawaiʻi will be among 20 public land-grant universities to be featured in the in Washington D.C. from June 27 to July 8, 2012.

The festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act, which paved the way for higher education for rural and working class Americans.

The University of Hawaiʻi exhibits will feature traditional Hawaiian health and healing practices, a mini taro patch, non-instrument navigation, medicinal herb and organic farming and much more. Hawaiʻi Community College’s halau Unukupukupu and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Tuahine Troup will also perform.

The University of Hawaiʻi will be among 20 public land-grant universities to be featured in the in Washington D.C. from June 27 to July 8, 2012.

The festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act, which paved the way for higher education for rural and working class Americans.

The University of Hawaiʻi exhibits will feature traditional Hawaiian health and healing practices, a mini taro patch, non-instrument navigation, medicinal herb and organic farming and much more. Hawaiʻi Community College’s halau Unukupukupu and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Tuahine Troup will also perform.

University of Hawaiʻi students, staff, faculty and community members have been rehearsing for months in an old World War Two Quonset hut on the campus in Hilo. The 25-member hālau is preparing for the in Washington D.C. later this month.

“We’re actually transporting our village. Our hālau,” said Taupouri Tangaro, kumu hula and chair of Hawaiʻi CC’s Hawaiian lifestyles and humanities department.

The hula group Unukupukupu hired a professional moving company to ship decorative plants, 50 conch shells, 25 drums—a total of 2,200 pounds of hula equipment and plants.

The hālau will perform twice a day on the National Mall during the two-week festival, as part of the University of Hawaiʻi’s 80 member delegation. About 1.5 million people will visit this annual festival, which will mean huge exposure for the University of Hawaiʻi and its community.

Unukupukupu wants to demonstrate the many ways hula helps the community.

“If they walk away realizing that hula is not entertainment more than it is a process for transformation, I’ll be satisfied. We’re taking this 2,000 year old story and we pull out of it leadership models,” Tangaro said, referring to his use of hula in academics.

The performers will be doing pele lava dances, temple dances and numbers not commonly seen at lūʻau and the Merrie Monarch Festival.

The performers include faculty, staff, administrators and students from the entire university system.

“We blend those communities so the people that serve the students are actually now students. And we just blend them. And that works really well for student success,” Tangaro said.

“This is wonderful because it dissolves barriers between all the different categories. So we’re all part of the village, so we look at the students as part of the learning process. We learn together and support each other’s growth,” said Professor Trina Nahm-Mijo, head of Hawaiʻi Community College’s Social Science and Public Services Division.

Nahm-Mijo found that she is also the oldest hālau member heading to Washington D.C.

“It’s on my bucket list of things I wanted to do. So I get to do it as a senior citizen. It’s wonderful,” Nahm-Mijo said.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The University of Hawaiʻi will be among 20 public land-grant universities to be featured in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. from June 27 to July 8, 2012.

The festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act, which paved the way for higher education for rural and working class Americans.

The University of Hawaiʻi exhibits will feature traditional Hawaiian health and healing practices, a mini taro patch, non-instrument navigation, medicinal herb and organic farming and much more. Hawaiʻi Community College’s halau Unukupukupu and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Tuahine Troup will also perform.