Authentic Hula Dancing?

Dave Davis writes a thought-provoking column about Guam’s cultural tourism (or lack thereof) in this week’s Pacific Daily News.  He argues that while Guam’s history and indigenous people can claim authentic and unique cultural cultural aspects, these are not the ones presently shown to tourists.

He writes:

“… nearly everything purported to be culturally indigenous almost certainly had its origins elsewhere, emerging only recently to bolster the visitor industry. What passes for the hula in Guam is copied from the Polynesians of Hawaii and Tahiti. Aggressive posturing, face paint and grimaces of male dancers are copied from the New Zealand Maoris, and stick dances from the Carolinians. Drum rhythms (and drums) are borrowed from the Native Americans. Costumes are also borrowed, as we know ancient Chamorros usually went about unclothed.

“The most disturbing long-term effect of all this is erosive dilution and corruption of truly authentic indigenous culture in favor of things lifted from other societies and passed off as Chamorro in origin. Future generations will in time accept it as authentic because they’ll never know the truth.”

Davis seems to make valid points but we wonder if some of what he despairs that is presented as Guam culture actually is now part of Guam culture, if not indigenous culture.  After all, culture is constantly changing so it’s possible that if Guam and its people embrace certain parts of the Spanish or Filipino cultures, those cultural pieces have now been absorbed by Guam itself.  Regardless, it’s an important discussion to have because he’s right that tourists want authenticity and can most of the time spot a fake from a mile away.

Tags: Cultural Tourism, dave davis, guam, hula, pacific daily news

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 9:37 am and is filed under Cultural Tourism, North America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.