Recently, Steve Sue, who is making the documentary “Shaka, the Story of Aloha,” interviewed me about that local thumb-and-pinkie wave we do here. In preparing for it, I decided to take all the things I know about the shaka and put it in a timeline. It helped me gain some perspective on it.
Shaka is a greeting. It can say “thanks,” “aloha,” “it’s all good,” “I am with you” or “take it easy.” But beyond that it’s an acknowledgement of our affinity for each other and our commonality.
There’s something special about the people and culture here. Shaka communicates that specialness, that Hawaii has some quality that we can’t put our finger on, but we can express with our fingers.
1915
Where did the hand gesture come from? It seems there are many stories about a person who lost his middle fingers and waved to others in an unusual way. But I could find only one that named the person: Hamana Kalili.
Former Laie teacher Viola Kehau Kawahigashi (1910-1998) said she remembered seeing Kalili (1882-1958) make the shaka gesture in 1915 while calling the villagers in Laie to a hukilau.
Kalili lost his middle fingers at the Kahuku Sugar Mill or in a fishing accident. His grandnephew, Vonn M. Logan, said that “because he could no longer work in the mill, he became a security guard on the sugar train between Sunset Beach and Kaaawa.”
He would wave to kids in his distinctive way, and they would wave back, bending their middle fingers in to imitate him.
“Hamana Kalili was a community leader and also the choir director at the Mormon church in Laie,” Logan continued. Photos of Kalili from back then show him waving his hand in the way we call shaka today. But he doesn’t think the word “shaka” was associated with his great-uncle.
“We don’t have any of that in our family history,” he said. “The sign came from here, but I’m not sure when the word ‘shaka’ was attached to it.
“As far as I can see, Lippy Espinda was the one who popularized it with his TV show,” Logan said.
1926
Lex Brodie believed, “That sign has been in use as long as I can remember. We used it when I was at Lincoln School back in 1926.”
Thirty years later Brodie was the Dole Cannery superintendent. It was loud and employees used hand signals. One of them was the thumb-and-pinkie wave, and it meant “I agree,” or “I understand.”
1950s
Steve Chang recalled that he and his friends used the gesture in the 1950s. However, ”We didn’t say ‘shaka’ when doing it, but instead said, ‘Easy, brah.’”
Wally Camp said the gesture was used on the Big Island. “We said, ‘Eesay- eesay.’”
Kalili died in 1955, before he was recognized as the originator of the shaka sign.
1970
David Akana “Lippy” Espinda owned a used car lot at the intersection of Kapiolani Boulevard and Kalakaua Avenue, near where Century Center is now. Lippy called himself the “poor man’s friend.”
His newspaper auto ads began using “Shaka Brudda” in October 1970. Sometimes it was spelled “Sha-ka” or “Shakka.”
KHON-TV invited Espinda to host a Saturday afternoon matinee show in 1970 called “Lippy’s Lanai Theater.” He’d introduce a movie and chat with viewers during the breaks.
“What I wanted to do was sell cars with TV commercials,” Espinda said. “But I wanted a commercial people would watch and not go to the toilet when it came on.”
“I used pidgin and it caught on like wildfire,” Lippy said. “The real trademark, however, was ‘Shaka, brah.’ It’s a word we used as kids (in the 1920s) playing marbles and agates. ‘Shaka’ meant anything nice or anything fine.”
Sometimes Espinda made the OK sign, and sometimes it was the thumb-and-pinkie gesture and saying “Shaka, brah.”
Espinda was a likable, friendly guy, and my feeling is that he made shaka cool. People were tickled by it and imitated him.
1971
In early 1971 a reader wrote to Scoops Kreger, “Miss Fixit” in The Honolulu Advertiser, asking about shaka. “Lippy Espinda said he was going to explain its meaning on one of his matinee movie programs. Unfortunately, I missed that particular show. Can you help?”
She answered, “It is a typical, hard-to-define island word that broadly means ‘everything is okay,’ something is ‘right on,’ ‘the best,’ or the ‘sharpest.’”
That same year, the Society of Seven at the Outrigger Main Showroom added a new pidgin song called “Howzit Brah” to their show.
Entertainment writer Wayne Harada reviewed it. “The pidgin is accompanied by that Shaka hand signal, meaning ‘all is well’ and ‘fine, bruddah.’ Shaka is how the locals say ‘right on!’”
Harada said, “Lippy Espinda says he’s the originator of the ‘howzit brah’ and ‘shaka’ bit now in vogue in the Society of Seven’s act. I don’t question the man. He’s got to be the island’s expert on pidgin.”
1972
An Australian board short company paired the shaka symbol with “Hang Loose” on T-shirts. It sold hundreds of thousands of shirts, and many around the world today will say shaka means “hang loose.”
Several companies began using shaka in their advertising. In a local Sears ad, it said “Hele on to Sears and be the first to wear this unique watch. Features Swiss movement plus kapakahi numbers. Shaka Bruddah. $9.98”
An Arakawa’s ad said, “Our ‘shaka’ outfits will keep you ‘in’ without wearing your budget out.”
1973
In 1973, Elvis Presley put on the “Aloha From Hawaii” concert. It was televised to Asia in prime time from the Blaisdell Arena. It aired in Hawaii, the mainland and Europe later.
At the end of the show, Elvis flashed the shaka — the first time it was televised around the world — to over 1 billion viewers.
1975
Espinda died in 1975 at the age of 61. He had hosted his TV matinee show for five years. His obituary said he had made the salutation “Shaka, brah” a household word in Hawaii.
1976
Frank Fasi began using a shaka while running for mayor in 1976. He did so over the objection of all but one of his campaign workers.
“The vote was 19 to 1 against the use of the shaka sign. I was late and when I got there (to the campaign staff meeting). I said, ‘How’d you vote?’
“They said, ‘It’s 19 to 1,’ and I said, ‘It’s 19 to 2 now and the two have it.’”
Fasi said, “I thought if there was anything that was local and really represented the little guy, it was the shaka sign. It represents everybody, no matter what ethnic group you happen to be with or where you sit in the pecking order socially or economically.”
The City Council forbade Fasi from putting his name on public works signs. Fasi instead used the shaka symbol and thumbed his nose at them.
Fasi believed the shaka originated with Kalili. “He used to stand on the highway, and when he saw people he knew, he’d give them a wave with only the thumb and pinkie, of course with a big smile,” Fasi said.
Fasi’s multitude of sign wavers, I believe, took the shaka symbol to new heights.
1979-80
KHON TV began using the shaka sign-off at the end of its newscast.
Paul Udell, who co-anchored the KHON news with Barbara Tanabe before Joe Moore took over in April 1981, recalled their new general manager talking about using film clips of people waving at the end of his newscast on the mainland.
“Why don’t we use the shaka?” Udell suggested. “We tried to get our camera people to film people waving the shaka, but they never got to it.
“So, one day I dragged a cameraman out on the streets, and I held a sign that said, ‘Give us a shaka.’ And people did. We ran it at the end of the news, and it was instantly popular.” They’re still using it 40 years later.
1992
When Carolyn Sapp became Miss America in 1992, she gave a shaka sign as she walked down the runway. A reporter asked if it was the devil’s hand or horns.
“No. It’s a symbol of aloha,” she said.
Brook Lee did the same in 1997, when she was named Miss USA, as did Angela Perez Baraquio, Miss America, who in 2000 flashed a shaka during her runway walk.
In 2005, columnist Lee Cataluna noted that the shaka has appeared on “American Idol,” “Lost,” “and every small-time thug on ‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’ was Shaka-ing.”
Shaka in da future
Many things that began in Hawaii have spread beyond our borders. Surfing is now international. Aloha Fridays here became Casual Fridays on the mainland. And aloha shirts are popular wherever the weather permits.
In the 1960s and 1970s, every major city had a Hawaii- themed restaurant or nightclub. Hula halau are everywhere. Ukulele and steel guitars have spread to the far reaches of the globe.
Maybe shaka will become widespread, too, and be the carrier wave for the aloha we feel for each other, no matter where we live.
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Bob Sigall is the author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books. Send him your comments, questions or suggestions to Sigall@Yahoo.com.
