Nina Boyd Maxwell

Nina Boyd Maxwell
Nina Maxwell taught hula for the past nineteen years and is the kumu hula of the Pukalani Hula Hale in Maui.


When I was young I was always nagging my father to let me learn the hula. He bought me a piano instead. I learned the piano but I kept nagging him. In the late 1930s and ’40s, hula was in a bad state of affairs and was not really respected. My grandmother was a lady-in-waiting for Lili‘uokalani so my father had seen the culture change tremendously. I don’t think he wanted me involved with hula because he had been so pained by the changes in the culture. Finally he took me to Elizabeth Lum Ho who was from the “old school”. There was no funny business in her class and my father was hoping the strict regimen would make me quit.

Mrs. Lum Ho taught at home in Wailuku and she would begin the class by singing a mele. She would then tell you the story of the mele and then interpret the story with the dance. If she felt you should learn the entire mele then you would stay the entire day and if it took you three months to learn that one mele, you would be assigned that same mele for three months.
Mrs. Lum Ho taught me traditional and modern hula and I studied under her for five years. After I graduated from Mrs. Lum Ho, she left Maui for O‘ahu and I went on to Emma Sharpe who trained me in hula ‘auwana. My kumu never really differed in their teaching style. Everything had to be perfect especially the enunciation and pronunciation of the mele. The knowledge was taught by constant repetition and we were expected to retain everything simply by watching and listening. Aunty Emma held her classes in a hall in back of the old Wailuku Gym. I was with Aunty Emma for four years and I was trained informally during this time by Aunty ‘Iolani Luahine in olioli.

In 1964 my husband Charlie encouraged me to open a halau, so with the permission of Aunty Emma I began to teach on Maui. I wanted to teach because the hula is the record of Hawaii’s cultural past and the key to the mystery and richness of our islands. This is what I wanted to pass on to another generation of people of all ethnic backgrounds.

The great battle that is going on today is, “Are we teaching and learning the traditional hula for the sake of performance or the sake of knowledge?” We don’t know the answer because there is a great void in the knowledge of our culture. But I can’t help but feel hopeful because I feel we are filling this void slowly but surely. A handful of resources are left to teach us and the “Hawaiian Renaissance” has helped to put the puzzle back a little bit more. We Hawaiians have gone through great changes in our recent history. Many of us were off- balanced and confused but we’ve re-awakened and regained our balance and I think the young Hawaiians of today are proud of who they are.