Parts of the state are still recovering from Hurricane Lane, which is now a tropical storm. Hawai‘i residents spent several days holed up in their homes anticipating the hurricane’s arrival. As HPR’s Ku‘uwehi Hiraishi reports, some residents found a creative way to wait out the storm.
There’s nothing like an impromptu jam session or kanikapila as we like to say here in Hawai’i to help everyone pass the time. As the state waited for Hurricane Lane to make landfall, residents from across the island chain uploaded videos to social media in what’s being dubbed the Kani Ka Pila Challenge.
Singer and Songwriter ?nuenue P?nua posed the challenge on her Facebook page.
“Honestly, there was nothing to do at home after we cooked and cleaned. I got my ukulele, called my daughter, and said let’s go,” says P?nua.
She challenged everyone to sing a song of their birthplace and upload it to social media.
P?NUA: Ok, so to fight the boredom, we?re going to play a song. We?re going to do K?ne?ohe....”??lapa ka ?uila i K?ne?ohe, ka hui lau lima Hi?ilaniwai...”
The response she got was overwhelming. Families, children, professional singers and amateurs all joined in the fun.
“I think it inspired people to bring whatever they had you know,” says P?nua.
“There were a lot of keiki. I think I really liked that,” says P?nua, “There were a lot of keiki who shared a song that they knew and or they wanted to do it. They kind of pushed their parents to do it.”
P?nua says even though it took something like an impending hurricane to force everyone to stop and share music with family and friends, she hopes the Kani Ka Pila Challenge played a small role in bringing music back into our homes.
