Isle student at
Dartmouth stirs up
sticky fuss over
‘Hawaiian luau’

An alcohol bash is nixed after
complaints of cultural insensitivity

By Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

When Aaron 'Aina Akamu checks his e-mail nowadays, it isn't necessarily friendly news that awaits him.

The 1997 Kamehameha Schools graduate and Dartmouth College junior has been at the center of controversy at the New Hampshire campus the past two weeks after his complaints led to cancellation of a planned luau-themed fraternity/sorority party last weekend.

So far, he has been besieged by more than 200 e-mails from students and alumni criticizing his actions. Akamu is president of Hokupa'a, the Hawaiian club at Dartmouth.

The linguistics and drama major said yesterday he took offense to the planned party because organizers were taking the concept of a stereotypical Hawaiian luau and capitalizing on it to plan what amounted to a drinking party. As a native Hawaiian and the son of a trained hula dancer, Akamu felt that was wrong and ignorant of them to do that.

"I thought that it was very culturally insensitive for them to plan this big alcohol bash and to make it fun, encourage everybody to dress up Hawaiian, wear their fake coconut grass skirts and fake leis, and all those kinds of things," Akamu told the Star-Bulletin in the only interview he has granted.

"I wasn't against them having their party. I just didn't like the idea they were the stereotypes that they had in their minds about what Hawaii was about to have their party, to use that as their theme. That was what I didn't agree with," he said.

The controversy began two weeks ago after Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity and Delta Delta Delta sorority invited students via e-mail to their luau-themed party scheduled for this past weekend. Akamu said the e-mail invitation he received was filled with references to alcohol, such as vodka shots and Jello shots. He complained to the presidents of the fraternity and sorority planning the party.

Others complained as well.

Brad Russo, news editor of the college newspaper, the Dartmouth, said Omar Rashid, president of the historically Latino fraternity Lambda Upsilon Lambda, sent a campuswide e-mail on Aug. 12 criticizing the party as an act of "bigotry" and "racism." Rashid then threatened to pull the fraternity from membership in the Greek-organization governing council if nothing was done, Russo said yesterday.

After meeting with Akamu and discussing Rashid's complaints, the Coed Fraternity Sorority Council, the student council that governs fraternities and sororities, decided to cancel the party. Leaders of the two groups that planned the party apologized to Dartmouth students via campuswide e-mail for any disrespect and harm their actions may have caused, Russo said.

Still, the council's action sparked controversy among students and became the biggest story on campus this summer. Russo said the campus newspaper has received more than a dozen columns and letters about whether it was the right thing to do and whether it was handled properly.

Akamu, in a lengthy column published last Wednesday, applauded Rashid for speaking up and supporting Hawaiians.

"It hurts me that 'Hawaiian' to people is just about being laid back and having a good time. Hawaiian to me is about real problems, such as poverty, unemployment, poor health, depression, poor education and welfare," Akamu wrote.

"These are the issues that we have, and what being Hawaiian involves."

But several others, including two Hawaii residents, criticized Akamu's actions in the college newspaper.

Emily Bott, a Wailuku resident, in a letter published yesterday, urged the university to lighten up and not let one person dictate "gloom and doom" because there are problems in Hawaii.

"Maybe Mr. Akamu would change his mind if you roasted one of your New England missionaries instead of the traditional pig," wrote Bott, who Russo said is not a Dartmouth student.

Kailua resident Sarah Dahl, a Dartmouth senior, said for any one ethnic group to claim the culture of the modern day state of Hawaii is impossible. She said it would have been wiser to call the party: "A Hawaii (the state) Party" to avoid any possible references to any one ethnic group.

"I wish no disrespect to native Hawaiians, or any other group for that matter," Dahl wrote yesterday. "However, I believe that many things deemed 'Hawaiian' by popular culture are reflective of the culture of the state of Hawaii, and not uniquely the culture of its indigenous people."

Akamu said the Greek groups have agreed to work with the Hawaiian club to plan an educational event on Hawaii this fall semester. He said other Hawaiian students were upset about the planned party, in part because the club holds a traditional luau, open to all students, each spring, complete with hula, song, and authentic Hawaiian food.

"We would expect that these people, knowing that the Hawaiian club exists and knowing that there is a real luau that happens on campus, I sort of expected them to know better," Akamu said.

"I guess they didn't."