Article Source: The Positive Observer

Meet George Lanakilakeikiahiali’i Na’ope.  He is the flame that symbolizes and keeps Hawai’i and things Hawaiian. The efforts of his life have been structured to charge other Hawaiians to stay true to their past, to seek and give attention to their present while moving ahead in the spirit of aloha. Uncle George is a Kuma Hula or Hula Master. Hula reflects his people and it reflects him. Hula is the heart and soul of Hawai'i in motion. The Hawaiian culture, like so many other original cultures that still span our planet, is rich in foundation, essence and energy.   

To kick off Indigene, we have chosen Uncle George as our inaugural Ambassador. There is warmth and sincerity in his words and his actions.  Such deeds bring light not only to the Hawaiian culture but also to all indigenous cultures, perspectives and developments. His lifelong efforts and achievements are but one of thousands of similar voices and symbols that represent humanity and its fundamentals at a core level.

“The greatest gift you can give someone is total acceptance of who they are…” - Uncle George

Revisit Indigene periodically...to learn and hear about stories, insights and forward-moving developments in indigenous cultures from around the globe.  

A Life of Aloha...

George Lanakilakeikiahiali`i Na’ope was born February 25, 1928 in Kalihi, O’ahu and was raised in Hilo, Hawai`i.  He began his hula studies at the age of three under the tutelage of Mary Kanaile Fujii—the mother of Edith Kanakaole. His studies were directed by his great grandmother, Mary Malia-Puka-o-ka-lani Na’ope and his grandfather Harry Na’ope who began and conducted the Haile Church Choir.  By his grandmothers account their lineage goes back to Pa`ao well-known cornerstone figure in Hawaiian history and reformer of the Hawaiian priesthood of the 11^th century.

At the age of 10, he lived with and further studied his Hawaiian heritage under Joseph Ilala`ole. Upon graduation from Hilo High School, he moved to Honolulu and opened the George Na’ope Hula School. His recording career began at the age of 12 when he made records with popular companies of the time, 49^th State and Tropical Recordings.  He then traveled throughout the U.S. with the Royal Hawaiian Review and the Ray Kinney Band. Performing regularly at the Tropicana  Hotel in Las Vegas.

Featured as a chanter with the world famous Ray Kinney Royal Hawaiian Review, Na’ope maintained his education in classical and traditional hula with other hula greats, Lokalia Montgomery and Tom Hiona. He also studied at the University of Utah and received his PhD from Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. In contrast with celebrity life well under way, George was also teaching hula to the inmates of O’ahu and Kulani prisons as well as in multi-ethnic, less privileged communities on O’ahu such as Kamehameha IV and Mayor Wright Housing areas.

After serving twenty-four months in front-line combat as a member of the 10^th Corps of the American Corps of Engineers in the Korean War conflict, he returned to Hawai`i and was appointed “Promoter of Activities” with the County of Hawai`i under the Hale Administration. Now living back on Hawai`i Island, he served in this capacity for four years.  It was during this time, 1962 that the Merrie Monarch Festival was born.  Also in this period, he was honored by the Governor and Hawai`i State Legislature of 1960 with the designation of “Living Golden Treasure”.         

He went on to create the Lili’uokalani Keiki Hula Festival, the experience from which the Kalihi-Palama Cultural and Arts Society was formed and in turn he has been recognized with a perpetual trophy in his honor. Next came the Kalakaua Invitational Hula Festival, the Kaua`i Mokihana Festival, followed by the Kupuna Hula Festival. All the while, as perhaps Hawai’i’s single most ambassador, he taught for and helped to organize groups such as Hui O Na Kumu Hula in the Northwest U.S. as well as groups in California and New York.  He has taught Hula, the dance of Hawai`i around the world in Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, London, Okinawa, Korea, Australia, and Tahiti. He still returns annually to several Mainland locations and many of these countries, to judge their competitions and renew the skills of his students. 

Mr. Na’ope has also represented the United States at such events as the royal wedding of Japan’s emperor Akahito’s, son Hirohito. Representing Hawai`i, he welcomed President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Hawai’i’s Volcano House and President John F. Kennedy in our capital city of Honolulu.

The fruit of his intention with the Tokyo Hula Association, in 1981 Na’ope began the Japan Merrie Monarch Hula Festival to afford hula education to his Japanese students.  Still successful in its nineteenth year, it has become an annual summer event attracting thousands of worldwide participants.  He still travels several times a year to attend the five major hula festivals in Japan and to teach workshops for his students and their students.

After forty years of teaching in the Northwest, on May 1^st 1998, George Na’ope was honored at the First Annual “George Na’ope Northwest Invitational Hula Festival” in Seattle, Washington.

In 2004, he started the `Iolani Luahine Hula Festival and Scholarship Competition’ and in 2005 the First Annual George Na‘ope Kane Hula Festival in Madesto, California where he received wonderful letters of recognition and support from Governor Linda Lingle and from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger congratulating him on the event and advancing cross-cultural understanding.

In the 1970s, he had the honor of being a charter member of the Honokohau Advisory Commission, the group that guided the creation of the 750-acre Kaloko Honokohau National Park in Kekaha, Kona.

In 1993, he co-authored a book in two volumes entitled “The Lost Secrets of Ancient Hawaiian Huna”.  Mr. Na’ope is a member of the Honokohau Advisory Commission and has served as a charter member of that group that has guided the creation of the 750-acre Kaloko Honokohau National Park in Kekaha, Kona.

Uncle George has produced three albums, and has been nominated twice, for the coveted NA Hoku Hanohano award. He has recorded another album that is now in production and plans to produce several more over the next few years. These albums will help to catalogue songs and chants that have shaped his life and times. In 2006, he was awarded the Hoku Hanohano Lifetime Achievement Award.

Along with his dear friend, Hula Master `Iolani Luahine, he began cataloging and taping many of the old chants and taping the stories and backgrounds of the chants for the future. His passion is the creation of a hula center, Hula is Hawaii Culture Center, where arts can be learned and shared, and which would preserve the many songs, chants, and dances of Hawai’i through recordings and exhibits. The place will include a hula archive, museum and exhibits honoring the many Kumu Hula from Hawai`i. The center is designed to map the hula resources, hula events, cultural workshops, and performances. Uncle George is also the inspiration for a magazine, the publication of Humu Mo’olelo –Journal of the Hula Arts now entering its third edition.

In 2004 George Na’ope was honored by the County of Hawai`i Visitor’s Bureau and in 2005 by the State of Hawai`i Tourism Authority with Lifetime achievement awards. In Uncle George Na’ope was honored in 2006 with a Hoku Hanohano Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to Hawai’i’s music industry. In June of 2006, George Na’ope along with 10 other national awardees was chosen for their artistic excellence, cultural authenticity, and contributions to their field to receive the National Endowment for the Arts. This award is the highest U.S. national honor in the Folk and Traditional Arts. In September of 2006, he travled to Washington D.C. for a series of events including a banquet at the Library of Congress and an awards presentation on Capitol Hill.
 
In 2006, George Na’ope was the recipient chosen to receive the first Annual Governor’s Fine Arts Award.

Now at the age of 80, Uncle George Naope is still traveling around the world every year to teach, entertain and share his aloha with the world.  He has taught the world to dance hula and graduated generations of today’s Kumu who will go on to teach the future the art of Hawaiian dance.