Exploring My Cultural Identity: A Hawaiian Perspective

Everyone has a background, a past and a cultural identity. Our cultural identity identifies who we are and where we come from. My cultural identity shows how I talk, what kind of language I speak, what kind of foods I eat, the way I dress and the way I look. Your cultural identity has a lot to do with where you are from and where you are going in life.
The first characteristic of my cultural identity is my language. The language I speak and how I speak plays a large part in my life. My primary language is English. I speak English everyday however, I was also raised learning to speak the Hawaiian language because it is a part of my culture and many of my ancestors spoke Hawaiian. I am not fluent in Hawaiian but I was taught many words and their meanings. Every little bit of the Hawaiian language I know helps to keep our Hawaiian language alive and strong. As Hawaiians and people who live in the islands we also speak Pidgin which is slang for the English language. For example, in English someone might say “hey, let’s go to the beach.” And in Pidgin we would say “eh, like go beach”.
My second characteristic of my cultural identity is the kinds of foods that I eat. We eat much of the same foods our ancestors ate in old Hawaii before Captain Cook and other mainlanders came to Hawaii. We eat kalua pig and cabbage, lomi salmon, poi, poke,

fried fish, laulau and so much more delicious Hawaiian food. Many of these foods can be caught or grown and are sustainable in Hawaii when planted and properly cared for. We as Hawaiians can live off the land and the ocean and what they both supply us with.
My final characteristic of my cultural identity is hula.

Hula is a dance that Hawaiians use to tell stories about their culture using hand gestures and expressions. They tell stories about places in Hawaii, people such as Kings and Queens of Hawaii, the Gods that the Hawaiian people believe in and many other things such as plants, rocks, and volcanoes and so on. I began dancing hula as a young girl and my mom is also a hula dancer. It is a way for us to not just share stories about our culture but to also learn more about our culture and where we are from and to bring us closer as a Hawaiian community and

family.
In conclusion, I feel that my cultural identity has so much to do with who I am as a person inside and out. My culture is very important to me and I love to learn more about it and hear the stories about my ancestors and the way many of them lived in the past. It helps me feel closer to my family and understand the importance of why we help one another, rely on one another and have many family gatherings. My parents always teach us to appreciate what we have and who we have in your lives. Be proud to be who you are and always have respect for yourself and for others. I am proud to be Hawaiian!