(drumming)
- For centuries, my ancestors have been
the callers of powerful elements.
(singing in foreign language)
The rain, the fog, the wind, and the storms of our land.
They did this through hula,
and through a very strong belief system
that when we call they'll come.
(peaceful music) (rain falling)
Waimea is like no other town in the state of Hawaii.
We don't have any coconut trees in town. (laughing)
We're the closest town to Mauna Kea,
and so we get a lot of rain that settles here.
We truly are the people of the clouds.
Our children are named after the fog.
Our children are named after the rain.
(drumming)
We are the halau for Waimea.
We are known to be able to call the elements when needed.
Rain, fog, wind, the storms of our land.
And so our dances mimic the whipping of the wind
and the pounding of the rain.
(yelling)
On the outside it looks like it's just entertainment.
We are not a halau that entertains.
You won't see us down at the hotels.
You are watching the physical manifestation
of the spiritual world that we inhabit.
(yelling in foreign language)
(rapid music)
We are completely woven into our community.
When there's not enough snow on the mountain,
we get calls from astronomers to help call the snow.
In times of drought, we're often called
to chant into the heavens and ask the rain
to feed and nourish the land.
You know, every time we call them they come.
But they don't just come because you call them.
Your inside has to really pull them.
When you're finished with all of your chants,
you should be drenched in sweat.
It makes it so much more powerful
to be wearing what your ancestors wore.
They wore what we call kapa.
It comes from a plant that we call wauke.
(clipping)
It's gathered, the bark is stripped off,
it's soaked and then pounded.
(wood pounding)
You go through weeks and even months
of pounding and pounding.
You want the fabric to come out like soft cotton.
And when we're out pounding kapa,
you can hear it about two miles down the road.
(wood pounding)
It transports them into the realm
of what our ancestors had to do.
To be in a halau, you need to go through
the entire process of the kapa.
Without your skirt, you can't dance.
(peaceful music)
It's the pinnacle of the hula dancer's career
to be able to dance in the forest,
amongst the most supreme beings.
We'll hike into the back of the forest
or on the top of the mountain.
And no one's there, just us.
And we dance for the only audience that matters,
which is our ancestors.
They're in the form of the plants that are around us,
the hills that surround us,
the wind and the rain that comes and caresses us.
After we have danced, we don't
really remember what happened.
We just remember that we were in complete bliss.
(peaceful music)