The Hawaiian Renaissance: A Cultural Revival

The Hawaiian Renaissance was a revival of Hawaiian culture, language, music, dance, and identity that gathered force in the 1970s. After decades in which Hawaiian culture and the language had been suppressed, a new generation reclaimed them with pride. It reconnected Hawaiians to their heritage, and its effects are still unfolding today.

What the Hawaiian Renaissance was

Following the overthrow in 1893 and annexation in 1898, Hawaiian language and cultural practices had been actively suppressed for generations. Hawaiian-language education was banned in 1896. By the 1960s, fewer than 2,000 native speakers remained, most elderly. Traditional hula had been driven underground or commercialized into tourist entertainment. The renaissance reversed that decline through deliberate, grassroots cultural work.

It brought a flourishing of Hawaiian music, hula, chant (oli and mele), kapa (bark cloth) making, traditional wayfinding, lomilomi massage, laʻau lapaʻau (herbal medicine), and other practices that had been marginalized or nearly lost. Alongside the cultural revival came a renewed push for land rights, water rights, political self-determination, and recognition of Native Hawaiian sovereignty claims that remain active today.

Hōkūleʻa and voyaging

A turning point was the canoe Hōkūleʻa, built by the Polynesian Voyaging Society in 1975, the first Hawaiian double-hulled voyaging canoe of its kind in centuries. In 1976 it sailed from Hawaii to Tahiti guided only by traditional wayfinding, with knowledge shared by master navigator Mau Piailug and carried forward by Hawaiians like Nainoa Thompson. The voyage proved these journeys were intentional and skilled, linking modern Hawaii to its founding voyagers.

This proverb, recorded by Mary Kawena Pukui in ʻŌlelo Noʻeau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings (Bishop Museum Press, 1983), captures the heart of the renaissance: looking to ancestral knowledge to move forward.

Reviving the language and arts

The movement helped bring ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi back into homes and schools through sustained advocacy. In 1978, Hawaiian became an official state language alongside English through a state constitutional amendment. The first Hawaiian-language immersion preschool (Pūnana Leo, "language nest") opened in 1984, followed by immersion elementary schools. By 1987, the state lifted the 1896 ban on Hawaiian-language instruction, and Hawaiian-medium education programs (Kula Kaiapuni) were established in public schools across the state. The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa both offer undergraduate and graduate degrees conducted entirely in Hawaiian.

The Merrie Monarch Festival, established in 1964 and named for King David Kalākaua who had championed hula in the 1880s, grew through the 1970s into the premier hula competition in the world, broadcast statewide each April. It became a proving ground for hālau hula (hula schools) and helped establish hula kahiko (traditional hula) and hula ʻauana (modern hula) as equally serious art forms requiring years of dedicated study. These threads run through our culture and language guides.

A movement that continues

The renaissance never really ended; it evolved into ongoing efforts around language, education, land, and sovereignty. For visitors, it is a reminder that Hawaiian culture is living and resilient, not a relic. Engaging with it respectfully, as covered in respectful tourism, honors that resilience.