Every year in April thousands of people convene in Hilo, Hawaii to celebrate what has arguably become Hawaii's most important cultural event, the Merrie Monarch Festival. Attendees will come from as far away as Japan and Tahiti to watch the best of the best in hula and compete for coveted awards and the Miss Aloha Hula title. Hula's most highly respected kumu (teachers) will be recognized for their contributions, and Hawaiians will prove that their culture is alive and well.
In the same month, more than 10,000 people will descend upon Albuquerque, New Mexico for the Gathering of Nations Powwow which can be said to be the Native American equivalent of the Merrie Monarch Festival. Over 1,000 dancers compete for over $100,000 in prize money and young women will vie for the title of Miss Indian World. It has come to be recognized as the largest powwow in the United States, also drawing attendees from across country and Canada.
Both events are a testament to the tenacity of cultures to survive in the face of centuries of profound disruption. By the turn of the 20th century Native American and Native Hawaiian populations had suffered the near complete obliteration of their populations. The 1900 census counted less than 250,000 Indians and 37,656 Hawaiians compared to a conservative estimate of 10 million in 1492 for the former, and upwards of 1 million at the time of Capt. Cook's arrival in the Hawaiian Islands in 1778. That's a population decline of over 95%, it means that anyone born of Native American or Native Hawaiian ancestry has survived the most profound Holocaust in recorded history.
For native people dance is not only one of their most important expressions of culture, but in this context it is a celebration of survival and a way to say to the world "we are still here and we aren't going anywhere." As the indigenous people of what is now the United States, Native Americans and Native Hawaiians share many similarities but also many differences. A comparison of their dance traditions reveals these complexities and also how the process of colonization changed dance in their cultures.