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COURTESY KUMU HULA MAELIA LOEBENSTEIN CARTER
Dancers from Ka Pa Hula o Kauanoe o Wa‘ahila pay homage to the victims of the mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand.
COURTESY KUMU HULA MAELIA LOEBENSTEIN CARTER
Dancers from Ka Pa Hula o Kauanoe o Wa‘ahila perform during a benefit for the victims of the mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand.
COURTESY KUMU HULA MAELIA LOEBENSTEIN CARTER
Dancers from Ka Pa Hula o Kauanoe o Wa‘ahila, along with musicians from Hawaii, perform at a benefit concert for the victims of the mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand. Originally in New Zealand to attend a festival, the Hawaii delegation decided instead to hold the benefit concert.
It was a spur-of-the-moment decision by a Honolulu halau that decided to turn tragedy into a gesture of aloha.
Kumu hula Maelia Loebenstein Carter had brought her halau, Ka Pa Hula o Kauanoe o Wa‘ahila, to participate in the Pasifika Festival, a Pacific Islands-themed festival held annually in Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was canceled over the weekend due to limited police resources following the attack on two mosques in Christchurch in mid-March.
Carter and others from Hawaii, including former Miss Aloha Hula Kaui Dalire, singer Mailani Makainai, musicians Bryan Tolentino, Danny Naipo, Kamuela Kimokeo, the Ukulele Choir and Halau o Nuholani threw together a benefit concert, “Hawaii for Christchurch,” on Saturday.
On Sunday the Hawaii delegation also held a 2-mile March of Aloha to New Zealand’s oldest mosque, offered their lei, and were then invited inside to do a prayer.
“I think that was gramma reminding me that ‘dance is the showcase of our soul,’” said Carter in an email, referring to her grandmother, the late kumu hula Mae Ulalia Loebenstein. “She always taught me that our faith will be tested and that we have to stand up for what we believe in. There was no question in my mind that we would perform, and that it would be our aloha for Christchurch. We had already planned to dance and sell goods, but it seemed natural to recenter our focus. Our stance wasn’t just about Christchurch, it was about aloha being practiced and shared for all.”
The halau is on its way home tonight. The festival will return in 2020, according to a statement from the Auckland Council.
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