Four Seasons Resort Lāna'i 'has introduced a new speaker series to share the Hawaiian language and culture with its guests.
The Love Lāna'i Cultural Exchange Programme's inaugural event will take place on 26 and 27 August 2022 at 7:30 pm in the Hulopo'e Ballroom at the resort and welcomes Larry Kimura, Associate Professor of Hawaiian Language & Hawaiian Studies and Doug Simons, Executive Director of Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope.
The speakers will share their insights on the first 11 lines of the Kumulipo, weaving Hawaiian cultural perspectives and astronomy theories on the universe's origins. The Kumulipo is an approximately 2,000-line Hawaiian genealogical chant written around 1690 for the birth of a prominent chief of Hawai'i Island. It describes the universe's formation and precedes a detailed description of the evolution of life forms on Earth through to the first humans. The term pō appears hundreds of times in the chant. Understanding pō, a vast region of dark empty space from which everything emerged long ago, is crucial to understanding Hawaiian cosmology, world views and knowledge systems.
The event is open to Resort guests, Island Club and Lāna'i residents with reservations. It will also be live-streamed and recorded.
