Hula Quotes

“In this way, she began to understand that while the islands were connected like siblings they were not identical. Each had a rhythm, a heartbeat, unique to itself.”
― Jasmin Iolani Hakes, Hula

“You can steal a kingdom, but the kingdom will never belong to you.”
― Jasmin Iolani Hakes, Hula

“We are not here for you. We were here before you came, and will be here when you leave.”
― Jasmin Iolani Hakes, Hula

“The ocean gave us no reasons, no anger, no apology. It answered to no one. We belong to the `āina, the `āina does not belong to us.”
― Jasmin Iolani Hakes, Hula

“In Hilo, we are the `āina. Its mist is our breath, its rain our tears, its
waters our blood.
Our veins run deep, our song louder than their noise. Roots too deep to
extract. That’s the thing about hula. Burn your books, rewrite your history,
build walls, plant flags. Hula is written within the swirls of our feet. It’s our
umbilical cord, our pulse. Our battle cry, our death rattle, our moment of
conception. The chants are archived in the stars. Hula is the heat rising from
within our volcanoes. It is the pull of the tides, the beat of the surf against
our cliffs. It is our hair, our teeth, our bones. Our DNA.
You can steal a kingdom, but the kingdom will never belong to you”
― Jasmin Iolani Hakes, Hula

“We used to grow taro, bananas, sweet potato. Now we grew headstones.
The only remaining place where Hawaiians were still a majority was in the
cemetery. We were a species on the brink of extinction.”
― Jasmin Iolani Hakes, Hula

“To truly dance hula could not come from choreography or perfect timing. There could be no mimicking the elements of Hawaii. There was only becoming a part of them.”
― Jasmin Iolani Hakes, Hula

“What you will learn here is an honor. A torch. You will be the caretakers of our land, our ocean, our culture, and our community. This knowledge is already inside you.”
― Jasmin Iolani Hakes, Hula