Event Description:
The Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives (HMH) invites the community to experience “Mele Tūtū: Songs of our Grandparents””, the next installment of HMH’s acclaimed Mele Program. “Mele Tūtū means to invite guests to look closely at the memories and songs of our grandparents or great-grandparents’ generation from the 1930s/1940s. Connection to our kūpuna, our elders, helps us to maintain the genealogies, histories, and mana of generations that we revere today. Expressed through mele (song), oli (chant), and hula (dance), Mele Tūtū embodies the enduring principle of Mālama Kūpuna: caring for our elders and those whose shoulders we all stand upon in our present-day lives.
In the 1930s and 1940s, during the time of our grandparents and great-grandparents, live music performances and radio broadcasts were important ways of sharing local music not only across the islands, but also to the Continental U.S. and further abroad. Radio shows like “Hawaiʻi Calls” and its descendant program in the 1970s and 1980s, “Territorial Airwaves” helped to broadcast Hawaiian music, mele, and culture to people otherwise unfamiliar with Hawaiʻi, its history, or its people. Orchestras playing hapahaole music, jazz, and other forms of popular Hawaiian music were instrumental in connecting people across the airwaves.
For many kamaʻāina, the mele and hula of the 1930s and 1940s are direct connections to their ancestors who danced hula, played in world-renowned touring Hawaiian bands, and kept the memory and music of previous generations alive in new contemporary ways for the time period. These mele and hula evoke memories of family musicians in the yard or on the lānai, at family gatherings, or times when kūpuna would share the knowledge and history of the family with the younger generations. It brings back memories of joy, happiness, fun, and genuine connection between family members.
WORLD-CLASS CULTURAL PRACTITIONERS
Mele Tūtū: Songs of our Grandparents will be brought to life by the renowned musicians and dancers of Hālau Hula Kamamolikolehua under the skilled leadership of Kumu Pōhai Souza, and Hālau Mele under the direction of Kumu Sam ʻOhu Gon III and Kumu Māhealani Wong. Together, these celebrated cultural practitioners will weave historical and contemporary expressions through performances that illuminate the enduring responsibility of every generation to honor and remember the lives of our kūpuna.
EVENT DETAILS
- Date: Saturday, October 10, 2026
- Time: Seating opens at 5:30 p.m. | Performance begins at 6:30 p.m.
- Location: Kahua Hoʻokipa Stage at Hawaiian Mission Houses | 553 S. King St.
- Tickets: $50 https://missionhouses.org/events
- Culinary Experience: Gourmet charcuterie options available for purchase from Daʻcuterie by Oahu Premier Picnics
- Beverages: Cash bar featuring beer, wine, water, and soft drinks (available from 5:30 p.m. through intermission)
- Parking: Available at Civic Center Municipal Parking (346 Alapaʻi Street) or metered street parking on Kawaiahaʻo St., Mission Lane, or South Street
- Weather Contingency: In case of inclement weather or unforeseen circumstances, please check missionhouses.org for updates.
Press is invited for FREE. Please contact Mike Smola to make arrangements.
CULTURAL CONTEXT: MELE AS PRESERVATION
In Hawaiian tradition, to compose a mele is to create a memory — a record held not in stone or paper but in the living memory of those who sing. Many of the mele featured in this program were composed or modified during the early to mid 20th century to appeal to the changing tastes of music listeners during this time period. To perform them is an act of cultural preservation as significant as any archival effort and a reminder that the future of Hawaiʻi’s memory relies not just on written documentation, but on the communities who remember, sing, and refuse to let these connections fade.