Last night, I watched the new Netflix movie 'Finding Ohana' which is based on a family of diaspora Hawaiians from New York who went to visit their sick grandfather/father and made some discoveries of their own.
It was good to finally watch a movie about native Hawaiians and to listen to their language in which my younger sister and I commented on how some of the words were close to or variations of Maori and Samoan words that we were aware of.
As diaspora Samoans, we were also cognizant of the issues similar to those in the movie of raising children away from the motherland and mother tongue whereby English becomes the dominant language within the household of diasporic families.
It was also interesting to learn of and have an understanding of some of their native Hawaiian traditional cultural and spiritual practices about things that are tapu or taboo or kapu (Hawaiian) that were forbidden such as sacred places where the ancestors were buried or bones were kept.
All in all, a very interesting movie to watch and also the antics of American Hawaiians who were used to living in Brooklyn and the different views that they had with their native Hawaiian family members. I'd highly recommend it for family viewing and discussing over these last few days of the holidays...
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