Liffie Keonaonaoku‘uipooleolani Johansen Pratt

Liffie KeonaonaokuTiipooleolani Johansen Pratt
Leolani Pratt has taught the hula in Hawaiʻi for over twenty years and is a retired member of the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation, Hawaiiana Unit. She currently makes her home in Hawaiʻi Kai, O‘ahu.



I was born in Kalapana, Puna, Hawai‘i, and was reared in the ways of old Hawai‘i. My mother, a native of Ka‘ū and Puna, was a full-blooded Hawaiian who saw everything through spiritual eyes. She had taught me at a very early age the spiritual aspects of Hawai‘i. We were told that we were the “offspring” of Pele and so we were very special children. My mothers maiden name was Elizabeth Waia‘u Waipā. My dad, from Oslo, Norway, learned the Hawaiian language before English. He brought his “old country” ways along with him because he was very strict with us. We were not allowed to dance or play the ‘ukulele around him. The desire to do these things was always with me but it was unheard of in my family. My mother had allowed me to have hula lessons but this was done in secrecy without my dad’s knowledge.

At the age of six, I was taken to my first kumu hula. Her name was Aunty Mary Keahilīhau. Aunty Mary lived right next door to Edith Kanaka‘ole in Keaukaha and they would share the same hulas. After two years with her I went on to Rose Nuhi who also lived in Keaukaha, and I was taught the use of implements as well as more hula kahiko and ‘auwana.

After Aunty Rose I moved back to Kalapana and lived with my granduncle Nāpua Kaukini. He, along with my mother, taught me a lot of chants about the land and Pele. At that time, all of the people of Kalapana and Ka‘u were related in some way and like me, they grew up respecting Pele as a grandmother and kupuna figure. Everything about her was beautiful. Later I studied the ‘ohelo dances under kumu hula Victoria Nuhi Wright in Pāhoa. Then I began to travel with my cousin, kumu hula Martha Waipā Ka‘iawe, with whom I had my ‘uniki in a modern ceremony.

I studied informally under George Nā‘ope and Kauihealani Brandt, and after graduating from high school and college I moved to Honolulu and continued to dance at nightclubs and hotels. While studying with Aunty Rose Joshua, I related a dream that I had the night before. In this dream I was dancing on a heiau and Pele was dancing toward me with flames shooting from her eyes. Aunty Rose told me to go down to the Ala Wai Clubhouse to see this beautiful lady, Alice Kalāhui because I was the one she was looking for. Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I went. She then hired me to be a hula and ‘ukulele instructor with the Department of Parks and Recreation. I was pretty shocked at what was happening but she instructed me to report to the Kāhala Playground the next day to teach. I had never picked up an ‘ukulele in my life and here I was facing a class with a toy ‘ukulele in my hand and an ‘ukulele chord sheet in front of me. I taught the children C and G7 all day long.

Aunty Alice trained me in the proper costuming, the dances of both the ali‘i and the gods and she taught me the different aspects of the culture. Many tears were shed by me because Aunty Alice was a very strict person and she expected perfection. I had never taken the hula seriously before this but with her I learned fast and well. She brought in some of the very best kumu hula to teach us their specialty among them Mary Kawena Pūku‘i.

My parents were both pastors in a Hawaiian Christian Church in Keaukaha, Hawai‘i and for years I’ve had a spiritual battle going on within me. I was taught both the old Hawaiian religion and the Christian religion and I’ve tried to come to terms with this dual religion all my life. Today I am a born again Christian and an ordained Evangelist, and I’ve re-dedicated my hālau as a Christian hula hālau. Although I no longer do the chants of our kupuna, my God Almighty has been giving me some beautiful chants and songs for my hālau. The songs and mele are different but the hula is still being perpetuated.