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Women Around the World: Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and walk the stuff
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  Speaker 1: I never told your production of iHeart Radio. And we're
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  Speaker 1: back with our delightful Oh yeah, I said, we're delightful
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  Speaker 1: uh theories on women around the world. Uh. And we
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  Speaker 1: are here celebrating a A p I or a p
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  Speaker 1: A Heritage Month or Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in
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  Speaker 1: the United States. And what better way to do that
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  Speaker 1: than to talk about the wonderful Hiala Moano wang Calu
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  Speaker 1: also lovingly referred to as Kumuhina from Hawaii or Hawaii.
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  Speaker 1: We were promised. We're trying our best to be respectful
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  Speaker 1: of all the pronunciation. Please don't add us meaning being
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  Speaker 1: mean to us, because we do want to celebrate this
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  Speaker 1: amazing woman and many people, especially when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: the indigenous people. Uh how I and uh somebody around
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  Speaker 1: and about what they are doing and celebrate who they are.
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  Speaker 1: But before we start, because we are going to talk
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  Speaker 1: a little bit about traditions and preservation and culture, any
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  Speaker 1: I do want to ask you, do you have something
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  Speaker 1: that you feel like is something that is culturally phenomenal
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  Speaker 1: to you and or something you would want to hold
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  Speaker 1: onto a tradition that you would want to pass on
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  Speaker 1: or at least remember. That is a very good question.
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  Speaker 1: I think for me a lot of it is food based,
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  Speaker 1: which is interesting because of a book that we're going
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  Speaker 1: to be talked about where I really dig into that,
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  Speaker 1: and as I was reading it, I was thinking, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: you do. You form so many connections through this And
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  Speaker 1: and for me and my family, we're very traditional when
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  Speaker 1: it comes to food, to the point that I think, um,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps we eat things that we don't necessarily love too
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  Speaker 1: much just because of the tradition. Yeah, So that's how
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  Speaker 1: I kind of mark occasions. And even when I moved out,
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  Speaker 1: I would continue to make things like in the South,
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  Speaker 1: there's the traditional Southern New Year's meal that you make
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  Speaker 1: for your luck and money, and I, you know, slightly
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  Speaker 1: altered it to make it easier, but I do do
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  Speaker 1: it every year, and so I think that's part of it.
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  Speaker 1: And I actually was lucky enough to spend Mother's Day
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  Speaker 1: with my mom and she was talking about the food
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  Speaker 1: traditions and her family and how important it was to her.
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  Speaker 1: And now she has these memories with certain um dishes
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  Speaker 1: of just like cooking all day and the smells being
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  Speaker 1: so good and being so excited and going on picnics
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  Speaker 1: with her family to eat these things, and how it
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  Speaker 1: was sort of a big event when they would cook
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  Speaker 1: certain things. So I would have to say it's probably food.
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  Speaker 1: My dad also had he had food things, but his
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  Speaker 1: were much more like I don't know, it's as much more.
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  Speaker 1: I just really like this and I grew up eating
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  Speaker 1: it as opposed to a certain date. Yeah. Yeah, I
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  Speaker 1: mean for me, it's not anything that I feel I
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  Speaker 1: will be passing on generationally. Maybe that's just because I
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  Speaker 1: don't have kids and I don't work with kids right now,
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  Speaker 1: but typically I had things growing up that was a
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  Speaker 1: lot nice. But it feels also like it kind of
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  Speaker 1: now lost. Um whether it's because the people who started
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  Speaker 1: the tradition passed away so therefore we don't pick it
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  Speaker 1: up or literally like we used to go for New
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  Speaker 1: Year's as a family, go up on top of this mountain.
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  Speaker 1: There was this giant boulders where we would actually do
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  Speaker 1: traditional things, very religious things, also put like a time
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  Speaker 1: capsule ish. Then we would come back the next year
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  Speaker 1: to look, but it got bouldozed. It is now under
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  Speaker 1: now suburbs, so out the window because of that. Um,
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  Speaker 1: So like things like that have caused for a lot
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  Speaker 1: of disruptions, which we're going to talk about in that
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  Speaker 1: because the settlement and capitalism of that can destroy things.
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  Speaker 1: We know this, which we're not gonna be all negative,
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  Speaker 1: I promise, but um yeah. Like I think for me
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  Speaker 1: right now is figuring out my ethnicity and so following
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  Speaker 1: along Korean traditions to pick that up for myself. So
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  Speaker 1: doing things for Chinese or Korean New Year's which are
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  Speaker 1: similar in the same date, but figuring those traditions out
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  Speaker 1: what soups actually did, the specific foods in honor of it,
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  Speaker 1: including like sweeping about the Old Year, all of these things,
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  Speaker 1: uh specific types of soups that they want you to eat,
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  Speaker 1: rice cakes, the focky type of thing that I'm like, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: i want to pick this up for myself because I've
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  Speaker 1: never had that, So I would like that as a
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  Speaker 1: connection and I find that beautiful and I want to
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  Speaker 1: connect that part part of myself to that. And again,
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  Speaker 1: beyond family traditions, my family did not do much other
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  Speaker 1: than religious things. That is no longer a part of
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  Speaker 1: my life. So it feels kind of for the sake
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  Speaker 1: of doing it, I'll do it with my family, but
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  Speaker 1: I don't celebrate it on my own, but I do
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  Speaker 1: miss some of that. Like we used to do third
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  Speaker 1: Sundays would be a big deal because we would get
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  Speaker 1: the entire family. I'm talking entires, cousins, aunts, uncles, all
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  Speaker 1: that coming out under one place, eating a giant family
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  Speaker 1: southern mill as we can celebrate, and I kind of
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  Speaker 1: missed that. I also mystify like all good food, all
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  Speaker 1: the very country food, but that was very based on
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  Speaker 1: religion and tradition and things. And then it's a patriarch
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  Speaker 1: and the matriarch died in that family. We haven't done that.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, We've all got on our separate ways. It
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  Speaker 1: kind of happens that way, um and in general, so
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  Speaker 1: I do miss those sort of sort of but now
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  Speaker 1: that with a being an adult that does not agree
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  Speaker 1: with my family most of the time, I'm okay not
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  Speaker 1: having had tripe. Yeah yeah, yeah, I will say my dad,
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  Speaker 1: now that I think about it, he loved movies and
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  Speaker 1: he loved entertaining people. So I feel like it my
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  Speaker 1: you know, fictional women section sort of passing down that
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  Speaker 1: well in a different way of honoring beyond you and
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  Speaker 1: I doing things for our own uh happiness. We are
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  Speaker 1: talking about um Wanklu, who has done some amazing things,
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  Speaker 1: and she is doing it specifically because she wants to
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  Speaker 1: preserve the native cultures within Hawaii and making sure that
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  Speaker 1: it remains and it's passed down from generation to generation.
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  Speaker 1: It's a beautiful favorite thing. We know, there's a really
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  Speaker 1: dark history when it comes to Hawaii and the way
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  Speaker 1: it was colonized and take it over and actually just
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  Speaker 1: technically still not supposed to be a part of the
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  Speaker 1: US territories. But hey, you know, if you want more information,
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  Speaker 1: there's so many podcasts about that, and you should absolutely
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  Speaker 1: dig deep because it's an ugly history that we need
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  Speaker 1: to know and we'll never forget. But because of that,
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  Speaker 1: she is one who has made it part of her
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  Speaker 1: life to make sure that she's teaching the ways of
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  Speaker 1: the traditions and the cultures of the people of the
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  Speaker 1: Native Hawaiian islands. She was actually born in Oahu um
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  Speaker 1: and wan Calu is a Native Hawaiian Mahu, which is
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  Speaker 1: a Native Hawaiian and to Tahitian cultural term referencing the
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  Speaker 1: third gender people quote which occupies a place in the
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  Speaker 1: middle between male and female. So I got that from
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  Speaker 1: the wikipedias and who are typically seen as teachers or
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  Speaker 1: roles who are respected for their spiritual and social roles
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  Speaker 1: in the culture and teach different ways of life preserving
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  Speaker 1: their culture, including hula dancing and spiritual chance and song.
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  Speaker 1: So essentially what we see as the ritualistic traditions within
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  Speaker 1: the Native Hawaiian communities, these beautiful dances which if you
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  Speaker 1: don't know how to do it, don't do it because
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  Speaker 1: it's disrespectful, disrespectful, disrespectful. Um she is teaching this according
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  Speaker 1: to some ma who can be dated to pre colonial
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  Speaker 1: history of Hawaii and was noted to be priests, and
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  Speaker 1: they were noted to be priests and healers at the time,
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  Speaker 1: but due to colonization some of the history has been
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  Speaker 1: whitewashed and even erased. But with Native Hawaiians like Juan Calu,
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  Speaker 1: or as she's livingly termed Kumohina, they are able to
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  Speaker 1: preserve the two beautiful teachings and past traditions and teach
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  Speaker 1: it onto the younger generations right and growing up trying
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  Speaker 1: to ignore what she has always known she wasn't as
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  Speaker 1: she was born. It was at the age of twenty
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  Speaker 1: one Calu embraced who she was and began her transition,
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  Speaker 1: taking on the name Hnale Moana, or the Goddess of
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  Speaker 1: the Moon. She soon graduated from the University of Hawaii
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  Speaker 1: in Manoa, and there she began her journey and activism
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  Speaker 1: and advocacy. Wangkalu continues to be a mentor, teacher, advocate,
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  Speaker 1: and preserver for her community and her people. As a
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  Speaker 1: Maho and trans woman, she has become a fierce ally
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  Speaker 1: for her community and for her culture, promoting quote cross
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  Speaker 1: cultural alliances throughout the Pacific Islands. And that's according to
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  Speaker 1: her recent interview with Kai on Momona dot org. And
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  Speaker 1: I hope I'm not butchering it. I apologize if I am.
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  Speaker 1: And not only does she teach traditional songs and dances,
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  Speaker 1: but she writes and performs her music as well. And
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  Speaker 1: to add another title to her mini professional tags, she's
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  Speaker 1: a filmmaker too. Yes, yes, she did one in twenty
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  Speaker 1: which got a lot of good accolades and good reviews. Which. Yes.
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  Speaker 1: She is the founder of Kulia Namamo, which was an
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  Speaker 1: organization seeking to improve transgender and mahu Wahi needs quality
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  Speaker 1: of life and help. She was also a teacher of
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  Speaker 1: the Kumu language at Leeward community college. She soon would
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  Speaker 1: get involved with the community government as a candidate of
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  Speaker 1: the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which made her the first
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  Speaker 1: transgender candidate for a statewide political office in the US,
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  Speaker 1: which is beautiful. Um. She went on to serve as
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  Speaker 1: the chair of Oahu Island Burial Council and became the
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  Speaker 1: cultural director of halal Okahi Public Charter Schools. So she's
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  Speaker 1: doing a lot and much like so many of the
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  Speaker 1: amazing women we've talked about, she was featured in an
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  Speaker 1: award winning documentary titled Kumu Hina. The documentary release in
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  Speaker 1: two and um follows her life as she teaches and
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  Speaker 1: preserves their native culture and teaches it to the younger generations.
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  Speaker 1: In it, viewers are able to see the beautiful mentorship
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  Speaker 1: she has with a young student who also identifies as
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  Speaker 1: quote in the middle and seek to join an all
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  Speaker 1: male hula group in their school. And if you go
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  Speaker 1: on to the cliffs who watch any of it, you
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  Speaker 1: will see juang Kalu mentoring the sound person and really
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  Speaker 1: encouraging them to be who they are and taking on
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  Speaker 1: the role and being a powerhouse UH in a community
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  Speaker 1: they may not feel welcome, so it's a really beautiful scene.
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  Speaker 1: It also follows her romantic relationship. I believe it is
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  Speaker 1: the beginning of their relationship with a young man, as
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  Speaker 1: well as her journey in meeting with the with her elders,
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  Speaker 1: the traditional Maho who actually lived together to seek guidance
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  Speaker 1: and mentorship. Yeah, and the film was well received in
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  Speaker 1: one the Frameline Film Festival, Documentary Jury Award and the
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  Speaker 1: Audience Award for Independent Lens. It would also get the
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  Speaker 1: Outstanding Documentary Award from the Glad Media Awards. It was
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  Speaker 1: also made into a shorter children's version titled I Placed
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  Speaker 1: in the Middle, which was used for classrooms and educational purposes.
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  Speaker 1: Her path and mission of preserving her culture and passing
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  Speaker 1: it down to younger generations has made her an icon
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  Speaker 1: among so many Using song are may They, as she
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  Speaker 1: puts it, has been a key part of how she's
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  Speaker 1: teaching the traditions. She says in one of her interviews,
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  Speaker 1: many of us tend to recall what we heard. It's
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  Speaker 1: a part of our culture, and so singing helps us
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  Speaker 1: recall these memories and understanding may they, whether in chant form,
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  Speaker 1: may they him and I choir style Western music with
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  Speaker 1: guitar are ukuleately the ideas that that's how we passed
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  Speaker 1: down the message and that's so true all the songs
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  Speaker 1: of the childhood. And if you get a chance, please
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  Speaker 1: go and watch the beautiful documentary that it is a
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  Speaker 1: gorgeous portrayal of who she is in the community she
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  Speaker 1: is creating. But you know, we couldn't leave an episode
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  Speaker 1: set rain this wonderful warrior without talking about the many
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  Speaker 1: recognitions she has been given, including as the recipient of
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  Speaker 1: the National Education Association Ellison on Izuoka Human and Civil
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  Speaker 1: Rights Award Native Hawaiian Community Educator of the Year. She
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  Speaker 1: was also a White House Champion of Change I believe
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  Speaker 1: in fourteen and was named by USA Today as one
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  Speaker 1: of the ten Women of the Century from Hawaii. So
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  Speaker 1: that's a pretty big title. And of course, like I said,
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  Speaker 1: she's still doing films and getting a lot of accolades.
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  Speaker 1: I believe one of our films was actually recommended and
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  Speaker 1: coognize it by the OSCARS organization. So again, phenomenal work.
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  Speaker 1: And we did want to end with one stanza from
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  Speaker 1: her famous song, And because we cannot speak the native
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  Speaker 1: Hawaikian tongue, we're going to say the translated version because
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  Speaker 1: we want to try to be respectful uh as much
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  Speaker 1: as we can. But it was also very beautiful in
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  Speaker 1: how they are proud of their land and the song
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  Speaker 1: title written by Wang Kalu is kuha hal So it
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  Speaker 1: is also on YouTube if you want to go see
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  Speaker 1: the full version. It is gorgeous. So in the translated
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  Speaker 1: version it says, stand proud, my Hawaii band of warriors,
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  Speaker 1: of my land. This is the dawn of a new
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  Speaker 1: era of our people, for my nation, for our Hawaitian society,
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  Speaker 1: and I shall give my all right, And that was
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  Speaker 1: just one small stanza and it was so gorgeous that
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  Speaker 1: we had to uh say it in a translated version.
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  Speaker 1: But the actual version where they're singing that beautifully, you
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  Speaker 1: definitely should go and check it out because it is gorgeous.
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  Speaker 1: It is almost since children. Yeah, yeah, this is such
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  Speaker 1: amazing work and so much stuff like for us to
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: to enjoy so much work that we can find, and
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: that's that's always great. So yes, go check all these
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: things out. As always, if there's someone that you think
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  Speaker 1: we should talk about our an organization, you think we
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: should talk about in this segment, please let us know.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: You can email us at Steffie your mom stuff at
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: ihart mea dot com. You can find us on Twitter
• 14:28
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  Speaker 1: You thinks there's always to our super producer, Christina, thank
• 14:33
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• 14:40
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