Molokai Shines At Kupuna Hula Festival

Community Contributed

By Na Kupuna O Moana

Na Kupuna o Molokai, under the direction of Kumu Raquel Dudoit, traveled to enter the Kupuna Hula Festival in Kona on on Sept. 13 and came home a bigger winner.

We entered in five different divisions winning first place in Tutu Wahine (Haunani Kamakana), Tutu Kane (Allen Diorec) and Mixed Group. Our Kane group came in second. We also won the overall, making this our fourth time winning this prestigious award.
Raquel won the special award given by Nalei Kunewa, in honor of her husband who passed away, for the third time in a row. This award is for the performance that is most coordinated or in sync with musicians. It was decided by the judges and not based on the scoring process.

We have entered this competition for about 24 years and we are proud to say that we have always come home winning in various divisions.

We would like to thank our musicians who gives so much of their time to make this a success. We appreciate all that they do for us in making this competition successful and fun.

To the community, a big mahalo for your continued support in helping us with our fund raisers to get us to Kana. We are planning to enter next year to defend our title and ask for your continued support.

To our kumu, Raquel Dudoit, thank you for all of your time in making our competition a great success! We still love you in spite of all the yelling and pounding on the table in Kona to shape us up.

Once again, thank you Molokai!