A $1,000 check, a certificate, and a medal arrived in the mailbox of the Tinkham family on Oʻahu this week.
They were addressed to Lāʻie Elementary School sixth grader Keilani Kajiyama Tinkham for winning the top prize in the 2021 National History Day National Contest. Her entry, "The Rhythm of Resilience: Communication through the Bon Dance," took her on a journey of discovery of her Japanese roots through song, dance and drums.
"Every year for National History Day, they have a theme and the theme this year was 'Communication in History,'" she said. "I wanted to do something that focused on my cultural heritage because that was the whole reason why I wanted to do History Day. So I thought of the Bon Dance, which is the Japanese summer festival tradition."
This time of the year does happen to be Bon Dance festival season, though some communities have turned to virtual events due to the pandemic.
"Every motion in the bon dance means something, so I was able to understand it for the very first time," Tinkham told Hawaiʻi Public Radio. "In Japan, every region has their own bon dance and they do that dance over and over. But since people immigrated to Hawaiʻi, and they came from all over Japan, Hawaiʻi got this blend of cultures so they could do all the bon dances."
In her division, Tinkham was the first student from Hawaiʻi to win first place, competing against 100 students from the U.S., China, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore.
The contest is one that Hawaiʻi students do well in. Last year, HPR featured a high school winner, Summer Royal, from ʻIolani School for her project on female astronauts breaking barriers.
Click the "Listen" button to hear Tinkham's full interview and an excerpt from her project. This segment aired on The Conversation on July 22, 2021.
