For 2004 Na Hoku Hanohano award-winner Kainani Kahaunaele playing, composing and recording traditional Hawaiian music goes hand in hand with preserving the Hawaiian language.
Na‘u ‘Oe is the title of Kahaunaele’s music CD. The Hawaiian music title — her first recording effort — was recognized this week at the prestigious Na Hoku Hanohano awards held in Honolulu. The 1992 Kapa‘a High School graduate took home Female Vocalist of the Year and Most Promising Artist. All told, she went into the competition with seven nominations for Na‘u ‘Oe, an album recorded in Hawaiian and English for the ‘Aha Punana Leo Hawaiian immersion language program.
The recording was her first, and it’s become a remarkable success at a time when Hawaiian music sections of music stores are flooded each year with dozens of Hawaiian music CDs recorded by local performers.
Kahunaele fondly remembers her upbringing in the Hawaiian Homestead village on the makai side of Kuhio Highway in Anahola. There her family played music for more than entertainment, using it as a language of family love and as a way to express their feelings for their lives and the life around them.
Her family and friends were with her at the awards, Kahaunaele said in a call to The Garden Island from Hilo where she is now a Hawaiian Studies lecturer at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. “That was the most happiest thing about it,” she said of being in the spotlight in Honolulu.
“I was so happy, I was so happy for ‘Aha Punana Leo, that was one of the main goals,” the young Hawaiian musician said.
The award-winning CD features two songs with ties to Anahola; both describe the beauty of Kalale‘a, the landmark peak that lies mauka of the Eastside town. Kahunaele said her great-grandmother Keali‘ikua‘aina Kahanu wrote one of the tunes, and an Anahola neighbor, Solomon Kai‘aloa wrote the other. She was raised in Anahola by her maternal grandparents, David Kahaunaele and Kainani Panui Kahaunaele.
Music runs in her family. Her mother — Lady Ipo Kahaunaele-Ferreira — is a well-known radio personality and musician.
Now the success of Na‘u ‘Oe is opening doors for Kahaunaele, with performances upcoming in Japan and the West Coast.
She said she grew up listening to the Sons of Hawaii, and enjoys music by the Kauai Boys, Ho‘okena, the Brothers Cazimero and other local groups.
Her approach to recording is akin to that of Sons of Hawaii founder Eddie Kamae who combines entertainment with perpetuating Hawaiian music, language and many aspects of the Hawaiian culture. Both are reaching audiences who might otherwise forego showing interest in these areas.
Na‘u ‘Oe is much more than a popular Hawaiian music CD, Kahaunaele said. Through the ‘Aha Punana Leo school in Hilo curriculum is being created and distributed that’s tied to the album, and being used for students ranging from pre-school through college courses.
Kahuanaele hopes to return home one day.
“Kaua‘i itself inspires me because that’s where my roots are,” she said. “I bring my family with me, maybe not physically, but they always supported me.”
Along with her Hawaiian language speaking, Kahuanaele enjoys comparing her distinctive Kaua‘i style of pidgin with friend from elsewhere in the Hawaiian Islands. “(That’s) something I bring from Kaua‘i,” she said.
