UH Hilo anthro-history class on “Kalākaua – Merrie Monarch” is immersed in a festival of learning
Throughout the 2026 Merrie Monarch Festival, students in the class are encouraged to participate in festival events and activities, provide kōkua when able, and enjoy and experience as much as possible.
By Susan Enright/UH Hilo Stories.
A group of students at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo are taking a special topics course this semester on “Kalākaua – Merrie Monarch” (ANTH/HIST 394). This week, with the Merrie Monarch Festival in full swing, the class is immersed in the production through volunteer work and a huakaʻi (field trip) with festival organizers to add experiential depth to their classroom studies.
The course is taught by Professor of History Kerri Inglis and Associate Professor of Anthropology Kathleen Kawelu. In their respective fields, each professor focuses their teaching and research interests into issues found in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific region; Inglis specializes in health and medicine, notably leprosy and its history on Molokai, and Kawelu in the politics of Hawaiian archaeology.
The “Kalākaua: the Merrie Monarch” course offers a survey of Hawaiian culture and history in the 19th and 20th centuries related to Kānaka ʻŌiwi resistance, perseverance, and resiliency, as demonstrated in the eras of the Hawaiian Renaissance. Students study the period through a modern perspective of cultural adaptation and revitalization, with emphasis on the reign of the Mōʻī (King) Kalākaua, and the beginnings and development of Hilo’s Merrie Monarch Festival, which is named in honor of the king.
“Our course of study is taking us through three eras of cultural revitalization — Hawaiian Renaissance — in Hawaiʻi’s history, while weaving in the story of the festival from how it began, to how it continues to expand and inspire,” says Inglis.
“The three eras of cultural resurgence being, first, during Kalākaua’s time, the second in the 1960s-1980s, the era during which the Merrie Monarch Festival is founded, challenged, and then becomes a beacon of cultural identity, and the third that we are privileged to be experiencing now, since the Kū Kiaʻi Maunakea movement began. All of which are demonstrating a thriving cultural persistence,” she says.
“We are utilizing readings from anthropology, Hawaiian history, and cultural studies for this course,” the professor adds. “A primary reading assignment has been Tiffany Ing’s book Reclaiming Kalākaua: Nineteenth-Century Perspectives on a Hawaiian Sovereign (UH Press, 2019). This reading in particular has challenged dominant — negative — narratives about Kalākaua and encourages students of history to re-evaluate the accomplishments and contributions of Mōʻī Kalākaua, for whom the festival is named, from a Kānaka ʻŌiwi perspective.”
An important component of the course is students gaining first-hand knowledge of the Merrie Monarch Festival through volunteer work during Merrie Monarch week, as well as through participation in a semester-long, service-learning project that contributes to the history and preservation of the festival.
“In class, we study the past and present of the Merrie Monarch,” says student Lauren Aoki, an English major with a minor in anthropology who writes for UH Hilo Stories. “We’ve had guest speakers, field trips, and even a project compiling previous year’s programs. We’ve looked at the life and history of King David Kalākaua, his reign, and his eventual overthrow, as well as the founding of the festival itself.”
“Growing up in Hilo, I always saw the Merrie Monarch from afar, but never actually had the chance to participate in any of it,” adds Aoki. “This class has been an amazing opportunity to be a part of one of Hawaiʻi’s most iconic events.”
Sharing manaʻo
Pele Harman, UH Hilo’s director of Native Hawaiian engagement says that “Merrie Monarch is often seen as a festival, but has become a continuation of a movement begun by Kalākaua to restore language, hula, and identity.”
Harman, a kumu hula herself, notes that at times, there can be an unspoken divide in academia where cultural practice is not always valued in the same way as other forms of scholarship.
“This course helps to shift that thinking by affirming that ʻike Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian knowledge), expressed through hula, mele, and ʻōlelo (language), is deeply intellectual and worthy of study and respect,” says Harman. “It reminds our students of both the depth of this legacy and their kuleana (responsibility) to carry it forward.”
This observation is affirmed in the class by talk-story sessions with several guest speakers throughout the semester, of great benefit to the students.
Speakers have included Helen Wong-Smith, an archivist for university records at the University of Hawaiʻi. “She spoke to us about archives and records (and) data collection, as part of our preparations for our semester class project, which is to collect data from previous MM Festival programs, to contribute to the festival’s data-base on hālau participants, winners, mele used, hōʻike participants, (and) the parade,” says Professor Inglis.
Barbara Hilyer, niece to one of the festival’s founders back in the 1960s, came to speak about the legacy of her larger-than-life Aunty Helene. Helene H. Hale (1918-2013) served as chief executive officer (a precursor to the mayor’s position) for the County of Hawaiʻi from 1963-1965. When Hawaiʻi Island needed an economic boost and a way to attract tourists, Hale oversaw the beginnings of the Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo in 1963 with her promoter of activities, the beloved kumu hula George Naʻope (1928-2009).
Three Hawaiian language and Hawaiian studies professors based at UH Hilo’s Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikolani College of Hawaiian Language came to speak. Professor Kalena Silva spoke about his experiences as a judge for the Merrie Monarch Festival over the years. Associate Professor Kekoa Harman spoke about his experiences serving as a chanter for the Royal Court. And Professor Larry Kimura spoke to the class about the history of ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) and mele (song) in relation to the festival.
After this week’s festival, director of UH Hilo’s Kīpuka Native Hawaiian Student Center Hualani Loo will talk-story with the class about her experience serving as Mōʻī Wahine in this year’s Royal Court.
Huakaʻi to Edith Kanakaʻole Stadium, site of the annual Merrie Monarch hula competition
Professor of Anthropology Kathy Kawelu, who is co-teaching the course, currently serves as vice president of the Merrie Monarch Festival. Her mom Luana Kawelu serves as president.
“Last week our class took a huakaʻi (field-trip) to Edith Kanakaʻole Stadium, for a behind-the-scenes look at the festival with Dr. Kawelu and were treated to a visit with Aunty Luana Kawelu, the president,” shares Inglis.
Student Aoki says the class is “lucky to have Kumu Kathy, the current vice president of Merrie Monarch and the granddaughter of Auntie Dottie, as one of our professors. The backstage knowledge she’s provided has been invaluable.”
Aunty Dottie is Dorothy Mae Elizabeth Soares Thompson, who ran the festival since 1968 as a volunteer and passed away in 2010. Aunty Dottie is Luana Kawelu’s mom.
“As much as the Merrie Monarch Festival is about hula, I have learned it is also about kuleana, community, and ʻohana,” says Professor Inglis. “The Kawelu ʻohana has carried this festival through the decades and maintained it through their dedication and aloha for the hula community, and the community of Hilo.”
“I feel especially privileged to be able to co-teach this course with Dr. Kawelu, to gain from her life-time of experience with the festival, and learn from our guest presenters alongside our students,” she adds.
Luana Kawelu, who served as a social worker for the Queen Liliʻuokalani Children’s Center for over 40 years, has previously joined her daughter Kathy on campus to talk about the festival from its practical beginnings in the 1960s to its current mission that seeks to promote and perpetuate hula and Hawaiian culture. Here’s the video of that recent talk filmed at UH Hilo Mookini Library:
Sharing observations is next
Inglis says student insights and discussion, with and around the readings and guest presentations, has been “a true highlight of the class.” Next week, students return to the classroom, enriched by the real-life Merrie Monarch experience.
“Throughout the Merrie Monarch Festival this week, students in the class are encouraged to attend and participate in festival events and activities, to provide kōkua when they are available and able, to enjoy and experience as much as possible, and will be sharing their observations when we return to class next week,” says Professor Inglis.
Student Aoki is eager to share those observations.
“The class has also provided exciting backstage opportunities that you couldn’t find elsewhere. So far, we’ve stood on the stage watching the setup and helped organize chairs during rehearsals,” she reports about halfway through the week.
But the experience goes so much deeper than that.
“Through the class, you truly understand just how much work goes into Merrie Monarch every single year and how much adversity it’s had to overcome over the decades,” Aoki says. “My favorite part of this class has been seeing the community I grew up in come together, because so much of it comes from a place of love. It’s not driven by money or personal gain, but genuine passion and kuleana. Merrie Monarch is held together by its people, who have sustained it throughout the years for no other reason than because it was a good thing to do. It wouldn’t be the same if it was hosted anywhere else. Hilo loves Merrie Monarch and Merrie Monarch loves Hilo back.”
Story by Susan Enright, public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories. She received her bachelor of arts in English and certificate in women’s studies from UH Hilo.
