Dr. Joseph Keola Donaghy (University of Hawai'i Maui College), author of “Mele on the Mauna,” explores the role of music in building solidarity, inspiration, and activism in contentious confrontations about protecting the Maunakea volcano on the island of Hawaiʻi in his talk, "Mele on the Mauna: Perpetuating Genealogies of Hawaiian Musical Activism on Maunakea."
Abstract
Mele on the Mauna: Perpetuating Genealogies of Hawaiian Musical Activism on Maunakea
This presentation explores how music, especially haku mele (Hawaiian language composers) and performers, played a crucial role in defending Maunakea in the face of colonizer aggression. Haku mele created new songs at unprecedented levels, and musicians flocked to the mauna (mountain) to perform them, illuminating how music played a powerful role in building solidarity, inspiration, and activism among the mauna’s protectors and their supporters.
Series Background
THEME, an annual colloquium of UW faculty and students of Theory, History, Ethnomusicology, and Music Education, is held on select Friday afternoons throughout the academic year. Talks are at 4 p.m in the School of Music Fishbowl unless otherwise noted. Admission is free.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Keola Donaghy holds a B.A. in Hawaiian Studies and M.A. in Hawaiian Language and Literature from the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, a Graduate Certificate in Telecommunications and Information Resource Managmement (TIRM) from UH-Mānoa, and a Ph.D. in Music (ethnomusicology focus) from the University of Otago in Aotearoa (New Zealand). His is a member of the Board of Governors of the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts, and an active member of the Society of Ethnomusicology, and the International Council of Traditional Music. He also serves on the Board of Directors of PBS Hawai‘i.
Keola is a prolific haku mele (composer of Hawaiian poetry), whose compositions have been recorded by Keali‘i Reichel, Kenneth Makuakāne, Kainani Kahaunaele, Amy Hānaiali‘i, The Pandanus Club, The De Lima ‘Ohana, O’Brian Eselu, Patrick Landeza, and Steven Espaniola. His co-composition “Aloha Keauhou” (with Makuakāne) was performed by the senior women at the 2012 Kamehameha Schools Song Contest. He produced the Institute of Hawaiian Music’s Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award-winning compilation “Aloha ‘Ia Nō ‘O Maui,” and has received numerous nominations for the Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards as a composer, producer, and liner note annotator. Keola is the Faculty Coordinator of the Institute of Hawaiian Music and Music Studies at UH-MC. He teaches Hawaiian and world music, music theory and applied music.