Hawaii As A Hawaiian Culture

Like A Native

Hawaii is my home. I was born here, and I was raised here. As a matter of fact I haven’t been out of the state for more than a week at a time. On a day to day basis food isn’t anything special. I’ll eat what any other local on the island will eat. Portuguese sausage and eggs for breakfast, a spam musubi for lunch, and kalua pig and cabbage for dinner. When it comes to food I’m not particularly picky, I’ll eat almost anything. Keep in mind, I am a cornucopia of ethnicities which includes being Hawaiian. I have more ethnicities than I can count on one hand so its no surprise that I do not have a preference for food that I eat on the daily. Despite my ethnicities and despite where I live, I have only had Hawaiian food a handful

My family will cherish Hawaiian food. Hawaiian food was provided as a symbol when I was growing up. A symbol of celebration, or a symbol of loss and sometimes even a reminder. We don’t eat Hawaiian food on holidays, we eat it when we feel that we need it. The Hawaiians have a word for family that word is ohana, and ohana doesn’t just mean family. We Hawaiians believe that if you have nothing else, you will always have ohana. Ohana will be there during your best times, and they will always be there during your worst. You don’t even need to be blood to be Ohana. A group of friends could be your ohana if you love each other enough. Family is a huge part of the Hawaiian culture. My family will exercise that belief with Hawaiian food. If a cousin is getting married or being born, we make Hawaiian food to celebrate a new member of our ohana. If someone is graduating or if someone has died, we make Hawaiian food to celebrate the life of that member of our ohana. Sometimes my ohana argues like any normal family does. Occasionally times are hard and people will forget the love they have for another. If my family is having a hard time remembering how important ohana is we will make Hawaiian food. I have always associated Hawaiian food with comfort, things are better when I’m around it. I know that I am completely content when I have a big plate of it in front of me or even while I’m helping to prepare

For example, Thanksgiving dinner will take at the most 5-6 hours to prepare. When my family eats Hawaiian food, we make it ourselves and in total it takes about a week. If we are going to make it then we will go all out, with every bit of effort. The men of my family will spend the week taking diving trips on the North Shore to get a certain fish that we need or to catch tako (octopus) for squid luau. Meanwhile the women in my family will spend the week gathering ti leaves and luau leaves needed for lau lau. We will also individually wrap the lau lau which is very time consuming. In certain cases, we even send the men to the mountains to catch a pig, which we will then skin and butcher and put in an underground oven that Hawaiians call an Imu and that will cook all day about 12 hours. Now you can see how eventually all of this adds up. I’m always very excited when I get a phone call from my tutu saying that I need to clear my week for food preparation. I really enjoy spending the week surrounded by the people I love. It’s a great time for me to catch up on each others lives, spend time with one another, and talk story with my elders and take the opportunity for them to pass on their wisdom to me and its also a great opportunity for me to pass my wisdom and knowledge onto those that are younger than me. I learn a lot in that week and you wouldn’t really expect