Tag Archives: Hawaiian Warriors

Whistling at Night

Nationality: Half Japanese and half White
Age: 22
Occupation: College Senior
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/10/17
Primary Language: English

 

Interviewer: What is being performed?

 

Informant: Whistling at Night by Rayna Koishikawa

 

Interviewer: What is the background information about the performance? Why do you know or like this piece? Where or who did you learn it from?

 

Informant: My Kumu (hula teacher) told us whistling at night summons night maschess (ghosts of Hawaiian warriors)

 

Interviewer: What country and what region of that country are you from?

 

Informant: Maui, HI

 

Interviewer: Do you belong to a specific religious or social sub group that tells this story?

 

Informant: I don’t belong to this group but it is a Hawaiian superstition.

 

Interviewer: Where did you first hear the story?

 

Informant: My Kumu

 

Interviewer: What do you think the origins of this story might be?

 

Informant: Hawaiian legend

 

Interviewer: What does it mean to you?

 

Informant: Childhood superstition

 

Context of the performance– Talking with a classmate before class

 

Thoughts about the piece– Whistling is thought to bring bad luck in Russian, Japanese and many other cultures. I’ve heard warnings not to whistle in kitchens (French Revolution origins) or while sailing (New England- whistle up a storm). Here is another version of the Night Marchers of Hawaii: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/10/hawaiian-legends_n_3898664.html

More Hawaiian superstitions at: http://www.hawaiimagazine.com/content/your-must-know-list-hawaii%E2%80%99s-diverse-local-superstitions

 

Hawaiian Legend Night Marchers

Nationality: Hawaiian
Age: 43
Occupation: Mother
Residence: Maui
Performance Date: April 23, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Hawaiian

Note: The form of this submission includes the dialogue between the informant and I before the cutoff (as you’ll see if you scroll down), as well as my own thoughts and other notes on the piece after the cutoff. The italics within the dialogue between the informant and I (before the cutoff) is where and what kind of direction I offered the informant whilst collecting. 

Informant’s Background:

My mother’s mother’s mother and even from before her are from Hawaii but some England roots are interjected into the bloodline as well. My mother’s father’s father’s father hails half from Hawaii and the other half from China and Portugal. But what is funny about most Hawaiians, is that they are not only Hawaiian. They are also Caucasian, Portuguese, Chinese, Filipino, Samoan, Japanese, Korean, e.t.c…….Plantation workers were brought in to work the sugar and pineapple fields and they brought their culture with them.

Piece:

Adults loved telling us Night Marchers stories as kids and scare the bejezzes out of us!!! So scary.

I was told that the Night Marchers are spirit warriors on the way to war. They are souls that do not want to be bothered and we have to respect their anger for they fight to avenge their deaths. Especially when it’s a full moon, night marchers are welcoming new warriors to join them. They often chant and grunt, and bang their weapons. Their torches has a frighteningly deathly fire that is easily seen at night. They rarely march during the day.

Piece Background Information:

Informant already mentioned within her piece that she learned about the legendary Night Marchers through adults when she was a young kid. 

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Context of Performance:

Via email.

Thoughts on Piece: 
Similar to the way in which La Llorana is meant to keep kids from wandering out at night the legend of the Night Marchers might be a way for parents to keep their children from wandering about. The fact that my informant still, to this day, finds them so scary reflects that the legend was effective in doing just that. Upon further research, the legend of the Night Marchers might tie into a history of colonialism.
For more information on Night Marchers, see Beckwith, Martha. Hawaiian mythology. Honolulu: U of Hawaii Press, 1971. Print.