M. Kalani Souza: An Ecological Music Man Making a Splash
By Ke Ola Music Correspondent Colin John
Many on The Big Island may know Kalani Souza as a great musician whose personality lights up the room when he enters and takes the stage—either solo or with Sugah Daddy or Hamakua Uprising—in local venues and the many community events in which he participates—events such as the Laupahoehoe Music Festival, Malama Punalu’u and Na Waiwai O Laupahoehoe. He is that and much more.
It’s one thing to take a cursory interest and have minor involvement in several organizations all at once, only getting your feet wet when the notion suits. It is entirely different to passionately serve several organizations simultaneously, and to give each your full-time commitment and knowledge, with compassion for the greater ecological good of the planet.
The latter fits the eminently knowledgeable and amiable Kalani (as his friends call him). I recently met up with him on a clear Kona morning as he was heading to Keahole-Kona International Airport, flying to Samoa to evaluate a course in tsunami preparedness. Kalani’s life has been and continues to be centered around water and music and the inherent power within both. Born on O‘ahu to parents from Maui with ancestral ties to Moloka‘i, there was music all around him as a boy. He absorbed it through listening and playing with family members, friends and radio—Hawaiian, blues, rock ‘n’ roll, rhythm and blues, classical; it was all good to his ears.
He learned to play the guitar and ‘ukulele in the early ‘70s and carried his instrument with him everywhere (including high school, where the teachers, in a misguided way, expelled his guitar due to the amount of time he spent playing it).
Simultaneously working as a consultant for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), an accomplished musician, videographer, family man and a cultural advisor for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Kalani Souza is an individual who possesses a clear, concise vision for the future of humanity and our planet. Not your everyday musician, the well-traveled and world-savvy Hawai’i resident is also passionate about helping people understand and implement alternative energy sources, including wind, solar power and water.
Currently, Kalani serves as the chairman of the Indigenous Knowledge Hui of the Pacific Risk Management Ohana, a collection of federal, state, county and non governmental agencies who work primarily to mitigate and respond to disasters in the greater Pacific Region. He also serves as a cultural competency consultant for NOAA Pacific Services Center of the Dept. of Commerce and previously served as one of two Hawaiians in the Native Network, a group of 450 peacemakers on the Dept. of Interiors out of the Morris Udall Center for Peace in Tucson, Arizona.
“I blame disco,” the charismatic and kind-spirited former student body president half-jokingly says to me when asked why people have apparently behaved so negligently in their slow response to the environmental damage in the Gulf of Mexico.
Having spent three years in Louisiana doing oceanic research, Kalani, who now travels from his home on the Hamakua Coast of the Big Island, is qualified to make statements regarding this disaster. “This has been going on for a long time and the way to look at it is not to ask, ‘How could we have created this mess?’ but, ‘How can we change?’ and ‘How are we really with one another and with the planet in order to effect change?’”
“The Gulf is the bedroom of the Atlantic Ocean. The oil slick will likely reach the shores of Europe by next year. There will be a food shortage and the ocean will eventually heal itself but this will take so long. Communities need to learn to look after themselves so that they will have fresh water, fresh food and their health.”
Kalani believes that the key to awareness is through education, starting when children are young. “People are beginning to believe that the old ways are no good. Barriers in thinking need to be broken. Without mobilizing through education at an early age, we are repeating mistakes and diving deep into shallow waters.”
“Oil is not a bad thing, until it is mixed with water. The current situation in the Gulf is actually a strange gift to wake us all up; we all live with the water and cannot live without it. The past should have a voice, but given the current ecological state of our planet, not a vote.”
E ho‘omana i ka wai, ho‘omana wai nui:
The water gives power, great power in the water.
“Water is the manifestation of spiritual power without which no living thing can exist,” Kalani tells me. He says, “Let’s explore the importance of understanding the balance between science and indigenous intuition. We use science to prove a theorem, we use intuition to discover. Indigenous knowledge IS science; how indigenous people react to each other in their environment can teach us things about how to survive. In a natural disaster, everyone is equal: all victims, all survivors. If we can train a community to react, it rescues itself.”
The Big Blue O: Creating Awareness and Change Through Music
Music has a curious and often welcome way of “soothing the savage beast” and of getting people to listen to inherent messages. Kalani has an idea to save the planet through presenting a theater-based Pacific/Hawaiian musical throughout Hawai‘i and the rest of the world, based on the principles of creating harmony and mobilization through music and storytelling.
“I became a musician to effect social change. Who would most people likely believe; Bob Dylan, Sting and Bono or George Bush and Dick Cheney? It is important as humans to understand who we are through singing, music and storytelling. My goal is to create resonance, educate, raise awareness and change.” ❖
“‘The Big Blue O’ is the planet and we are traveling minstrels, troubadours telling the truth through music. The Big Blue O as a musical group will make a splash to mobilize people and get the planet lei’d. It’s about respecting the earth and creating harmony.” The Big Blue O is: Clayton Apilando, Mark Caldeira, Darrell Aquino, Colin John, and M. Kalani Souza.
To Contact M. Kalani: mkalani@ hawaii.rr.com
Contact Colin John at transpacificblues@yahoo.com
