Hālau Nohona Hawaiʻi is a Hawaiian cultural organization located all the way on the other side of the country in Silver Spring, Maryland. It offers hula, oli, ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, and Hawaiian arts and crafts classes to the Washington, D.C., community.
The organization was recently profiled by WAMU, an NPR member station based out of American University.
"It’s not just Native Hawaiians who are part of Hālau Nohona Hawai’i. The group also has a number of members from other cultural backgrounds, such as Samoans, Filipinos, and even white Americans, who care deeply about Hawaiian heritage," WAMU reporter Héctor Alejandro Arzate said.
The hālau was co-founded in 2014 by Kaimana Chee, a Kahuku High alumna who was born and raised on Oʻahu's North Shore. He started dancing hula at age 6.
Over the years, he studied under several prominent Hawaiʻi kumu hula and participated in the Merrie Monarch Festival. He moved to the nation's capital in 2008 and was given the title of kumu in 2009.
Since the WAMU story aired, Chee said there's been an outpouring of aloha from the islands and from the Washington community.
"In this area, we do get a lot of Hawaiian transplants, people that grew up in Hawaiʻi, come here because of the military, come here because of government, or come here and went through schooling and then ended up finding residence here," Chee said. "All in all, we're providing this outlet in this community for Hawaiians, and non-Hawaiians alike, to come together and to celebrate, to perpetuate, to learn about Hawaiʻi."
Chee is also an accomplished chef. He's won several awards and appeared in television cooking shows like "Cut Throat Kitchen," which he won in 2016. He's currently the head chef at a Maryland eatery called "Uncle’s Hawaiian Grindz."
This interview aired on The Conversation on June 2, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
