Native Hawaiian musician P maika’i (foreground) is joined in song by (background, from left) storyteller Kealoha Kelekolio; Native Americans Fabian Fontenelle and Shelley Morningsong; and Tau Dance founder Peter Rockford Espiritu during a land recognition ceremony with members of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation at the Cache County Historic Courthouse on Wednesday.
LOGAN – Members of the talented Tau Dance Theatre (TDT) from Hawaii took time out from their residency here to interact with the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation on Wednesday.
Tribal leader Darren Parry represented the Shoshones at a land recognition ceremony at noon Wednesday at the Cache County’s Historic Courthouse. He welcomed the visiting Hawaiians to Cache Valley and wished them good fortune while entertaining here.
The Tau dancers will perform their signature blend of hula, modern dance and ballet at the Ellen Eccles Theatre at 7:30 p.m. on Friday to kick off the CacheARTS national touring season.
Their residency will also include a workshop with local dance companies and a matinee performance for about 1,000 local students and educators.
But TDT founder Peter Rockford Espiritu said the dancers’ interaction with local Shoshone people is especially meaningful, given that his performers are themselves the survivors of the American occupation of Hawaii.
Much of the land recognition ceremony was conducted in the Hawaiians’ native tongue.
“This ceremony and ritual is an act of respect for someone’s land. It is ancient and a practice that should not be forgotten,” Espiritu said.
Espiritu was joined in acknowledging the Shoshone’s ancient claim to Cache Valley by master storyteller Kealoha Kelekolio, the former longtime cultural educator at the Bishop Museum in Hawaii.
The Hawaiian dance troupe was also accompanied by Native Americans Shelley Morningsong and her husband Fabian Fontenelle.
Morningsong, a member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe, is a gifted singer, songwriter and Grammy member. She was selected as the 2019 Native American Music Awards artist of the year.
A member of the Zuni/Omaha tribe, Fontenelle was an original member of the American Indian Dance Theater. He was also awarded first place in the Men’s Traditional Dance competition at the “Gathering of Nations” in 2019 and 2022.
The highlight of the land recognition ceremony was a song by popular Native Hawaiian musician P maika’i. An educator and event producer, P maika’i is the granddaughter of Hawaiian music legend Aunty Genoa Keawe.
The TDT members will also visit the site of the Bear River Massacre on Oct. 1, where hundreds of Shoshone were killed by U.S. cavalry in 1863.
That visit will be followed by a dinner to which local Native Americans and Pacific Islanders are invited. Locals can RSVP by contacting the Ellen Eccles Theatre.
The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation is a federally recognized tribe of the Shoshone people located in southern Idaho and northern Utah.
CacheARTS is an independent group that facilitates the highest and best use of the publicly-owned Eccles Theatre, the Thatcher-Young Mansion and the Bullen Center.
Tickets for National Touring Season events are available at www.cacheARTS.org.