Please help yourself to some gentle Pi’ipi’i waves while reading about this project.
- Ho’ola Lahui Hawai’i
When I was working in CATS in Berlin I met an incredible man of the world.
Lasinga Koloamatangi – www.alohahawaii.de
Lasinga once heard me singing falsetto in the elevator and said he had a CD for me to listen to. He gave me a copy of the Ho’opi’i Brothers. Now, that is where it’s at!
We slowly began working on a project of music , storytelling and cultural exchange of and around the polynesian cultures. Although Lasinga spent a large part of his life in Hawaii, we did not stop there. Naturally, we wanted to include his native kingdom of Tonga and the other nations of the Pacific. With the aid of our ukuleles and the Internet we began our journey.
Along the way we have:
- performed programs with various polynesian dance schools (my daughter painted this picture of her and Ekena after their first Hula together – I added “Lovely Hula Hands”)
- performed with Aaron Mahi, conductor of the Royal Hawaiian Band, for the 150th Birthday celebration of Heinrich (Henry) Berger in Coswig-Anhalt
- taking part in the “Karneval der Kulturen” in Berlin
- taught the Hertha BSC-13, youth soccer club, a Haka Tau (a Maori war dance similar to the ones used by New Zealand’s “All Blacks” rugby team before thier games)
The name “The Pi’ipi’i Brothers” came to me from an essay of Hawaiian history about the tabu king, Kahahana. His nickname, “Pi’ipi’i hahai moa”, means: curly head who hunts chickens. This epithet alludes to young Kahahana’s potential capability to hunt down his warrior enimies, as the moa (chicken, rooster) is sometimes used figuratively to refer to a warrior.
Click here for the document.
Here is an original tune we wrote for the Heilala Festival or “Kings Festival” in Tonga.
The Pi’ipi’i Brothers on myspace!
Heilala is the national flower and when someone says, “sei Heilala” it means, “to wear the Heilala flower in your hair.” We were overjoyed with the double-meanings we discovered while writing the lyrics. You’ll have to listen to find out.
- Heilala
While on tour with CATS we started to write some songs. With the help of Art Brauer from our orchestra, we came up with this tune and used it one year as our Theme Song for the “Karneval der Kulturen” in Berlin. The extremely talented collegue, (Dr.) Monica Gugganig shot and edited this video for us:
Hula Karneval Girl
We’d love to hear your comments!
Aloha!
