Hawaiian hula dancers have been subjected to the Western gaze and commodified through visual mediums since Captain Cook’s penetration into the Hawaiian Islands in 1778. The subsequent “scientific documentation” of Hawaiian hula began first as drawings in the ships’ logs, and led to photographic images that were composed by photographers for consumption by the Western viewer in touristic paraphernalia. Invariably, the majority of photographers were white males. This gaze continues to impact the photographs of hula dancers even in the 21st century. With the Hawaiian cultural renaissance (circa 1970), a new wave of commodification of dancers’ images taken at hula festivals and competitions emerged. There are numerous stories in the hula community of dancers accidentally finding their own photographs on wall calendars and greeting cards without their permission. Coffee table books focus on a photographer’s nostalgic view of hula kahiko, continuing the orientalist trend of constructing an image through the Western lens. Visual representations of hula dancers are still at play in the visual repertoire of the hula community, wrapping and layering themselves into performances of repatriated hula repertoire.
Raised in India from age five, Teri is bilingual with Hindi and studied Indian classical music and dance while studying at Woodstock School, where her parents taught, in the Himalayan mountains. Teri graduated from Wesleyan University and the University of Hawai’i with degrees in ethnomusicology. Her master’s degree focused on Bombay Hindi film songs and her dissertation examined the hula tradition at the Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo, Hawai’i. She also holds a Certificate in International Cultural Studies from the East West Center and University of Hawai’i. Teri has been active as an arts administrator in public folklore and ethnomusicology outreach programs. She has worked on projects for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the National Endowment for the Arts, New Jersey State Council for the Arts, Hawai’i State Council for the Arts, Asia Society, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and the World Music Institute.
Teri is currently the outreach coordinator for the University of Hawai’i at Manoa Library, where she has worked with the community to present two TEDxManoa events focused on traditional Hawaiian knowledge in the new millennium.
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