Something To Think About...

Ha'ina 'ia mai ana ka puana

This familiar refrain, appears among the closing lines in many nineteenth-century chants and poems.  From earliest times, the chanting of poetry served as a form of ritual celebration of the things that were cherished, the beauty of the islands, the abundance of wild creatures that inhabited the sea and air, the majesty of the rulers, and the prowess of their gods.  Commoners as well as highborn chiefs and poet-priests shared in the creation of the chants.  These haku mele, or composers, the commoners especially, wove living threads from their own historic circumstances and everyday experiences into the ongoing oral tradition, as handed down from expert to pupil, or from elder to descendant, generation after generation.

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