By Lynn Martin, Special to the Star-Bulletin
Line Saysamorndouandy sits at the loom, with
Bonnie Chantavong. Lao weaving is part
of Sunday's festival.
TRADITIONAL
ARTS
Academy festival explores
By Burl Burlingame
the cultures of many nations
Star-BulletinAs a little girl in Laos, Nora Sisourghone learned weaving from her parents and grandparents. It was an integral part of a culture that seemed stable and long-lived. Now, a refugee from the conflict in Laos and settled in Hawaii, Sisourghone has picked up the threads of her former life and resumed weaving. In this way, the Lao culture lives on, even if it's thousands of miles from Laos.
Sisourghone helped organize the weavers for Sunday's Folk and Traditional Arts Festival. More than 150 master artists and apprentices will create, demonstrate, show and perform works from their native culture.
Hawaii has been called a cultural melting pot. This festival brings the notion to a boil.
We're talking about performances of Hawaiian slack-key and steel guitar, Okinawan dance, Japanese drumming, Filipino dance and a 3 p.m. Cantonese opera performance teaming the Wo Lok Music Club, the Ching Wan Drama and Music Society and the Waha-Hawaii Cantonese Opera & Music Association.
Plus crafts like Hawaiian woodcarving, lauhala weaving, quiltmaking, feather and shell lei-making, gourd decorating, saddlemaking, fish nettery, embroidery, floral arranging, bamboo basket making, Cantonese opera make-up demonstrations and artist John Young's calligraphy demonstration at 1 p.m. And of course, Lao weaving.
"In our community, weaving is very important, and we wanted to keep the art alive," said Sisourghone, who settled in Waianae. "We wear our own clothes which we make ourselves by weaving -- cotton for regular clothes, silk for luxury clothes, or weddings or festivals."
Lao weaving patterns are distinct and easy to identify, said Sisourghone. "We learn the patterns from our great-grandparents. Each has a different name, and we keep track by counting the threads."
The names are descriptive, like "Keyhole" or "Diamond."
"We might modify them a little bit -- add some of our own pattern in the background or something," but we don't change great-grandmother's design," said Sisourghone.
Wayne Mendoza grew up in Hawaii, and learned about Filipino dance only peripherally through his emigrant father. As a boy, Mendoza became so interested in native Filipino dance that he moved to the Philippines to study it.
At the Folk and Traditional Arts Festival, Mendoza will give a lecture and demonstration of various forms of Filipino dance.
"There are various types, not just one 'Filipino'-style dance," said Mendoza. "There are tribal dances from the original people, Hispanic dances from the Spanish years, countryside dance by the various regions, Islamic dances ... all sorts."
A festival like this is good for "cultural sharing," notes Mendoza. "You might only know your own culture, but you can see the connections and similarities between everyone's cultures at an event like this. It helps me connect back to my Filipino roots."
Even so, the questions remains about distinct cultures becoming diluted, or simply fading away from lack of interest among new generations.
"Among our young ones, only a few are interested in traditional Filipino dance," admitted Mendoza. "They're becoming Westernized."
As the Lao community in Hawaii grows -- "It's the children. They multiply!" -- the heritage is being passed down. Two of Sisourghone own daughters are picking up the thread. "I never thought as a child I'd move to another country as a refugee, but it's good that it's a country that appreciates our art. Otherwise, it will die," said Sisourghone.
Folk/Traditional Arts Festival
When: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday
