Ola i ke ahe lau makani- "Life is in a gentle breath of wind." Hawaiian proverb
"E Ola Ke Aliʻi Ke Akua" The royal anthem of Hawai'i Lyrics by the then Prince William Charles Lunalilo.
"The undermining of Hawaiian culture accelerated in 1820, when the first of the Calvinistic Christian missionaries arrived from England and began to convert the Hawaiians from polytheism to the one True God" (The History of Surfing From Captain Cook to the Present By Ben Marcus)
Courtesy of John Webber "Hawaiian navigators sailing multi-hulled canoe, c. 1781"
Hawaiian culture was strong in sailing skills and the early Polynesians shared navigation, religion, public works projects, and consensual rule through `aha councils with Hawaii. The negative exchanges with the Europeans and Americans outweighed positive contributions.
Image courtesy of The Hawaiian Archives
"The decline and discontinuation of the use of the surfboard, ... may be accounted for by the increase in modesty, industry and religion." (Houston and Finney Surfing:A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport). The missionaries stripped away the culture of the people; this was much more shameful than the absence of clothes.
John Philip Sousa and the Hawaiian Band 1901
1878 Portuguese laborers from Madeira and the Azores came to work in Hawaiian sugarcane fields. They enriched the Hawaiian culture with large Catholic families, the ukulele, dance, the Hawaiian steel guitar and a strong work ethic.
"Hawaiian music is different. Its roots in language and culture give it an almost inexhaustible flexibility, letting it incorporate outside influences, from swing to jazz to rock, without losing its own distinctive personality." (Michael Keany 100 Years of Hawaiian Music)