CHAPTER 16: Using Hula to Teach Personal, Inter-Personal, and Environmental Peace

Typically when one thinks of hula what comes to mind is tropical music, bare bellies with swaying hips, and coconut bras. However, the ancient Hawaiian tradition of hula, which is sacred in the Hawaiian community,is much more than that. At its core, hula is a practice that teaches humility, reverence, and connectedness—to the earth, to those that came before us, and to one another. These types of lessons, ones that value peace and harmony over global competitiveness, are lacking in mainstream higher education here in the United States, especially given our federal government’s increasing emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)¹ fields and the rising pressure faculty and administrators face to produce research that is attractive to donors and granting agencies². In this chapter, I describe the history and the modern practice of hula, based on several years of participant observation, and highlight the ways in which hula exemplifies the vision for education set forth by peace education scholars and activists (i.e., Bajaj, 2008; Lin, 2006; Reardon, 1988). In doing so, I present my own vision for the future of higher education, one that incorporates embodied practices, like hula, in an effort to advocate for the appreciation of knowledge,wisdom, and values beyond the analytical-mathematical skills that are so strongly emphasized in our current system.