Hawaii: Diving into Its History and Culture with Kaliko Beamer-Trapp

  MP3 Download Kaliko says when you learn a new language it changes you into a different person. He says of learning the Marquesan language: “It has its own personality. When I’m over there I’m like a different person. I might look the same on the outside but I feel that I express myself differently. I express myself the way they do. I change my intonation, the pitch in my voice, and the strength of my voice as well as the way my eyes move and the expressions that I make. I change to match that environment and what the people there are like and I find that is so fun. I just love that. It’s like you can be a different person.” He describes being adopted by Aunty Nona, the most revered cultural hero, and her method of teaching. After decades of restrictions stemming from years of repression by the Western missionaries, she brought hula back to the islands in its original sacred form. Hula was originally used for religious purposes but when the Western missionaries arrived in the 1800s th