Ms. Wala‘au Pepeiao
Our
Native gossip columnists fills us in on the 2003 Mr. & Ms. UTOPIA pageant,
our Polynesian Lu‘au, and a little unexpected publicity for our group at the
Polynesian Cultural Center! Hold on for
the ride folks, she’s on a roll…
So the
results are in, and it's 10’s, 10’s, & 10’s across the board!!! Hawai‘i takes the Miss UTOPIA crown for
another year! With our own Hinaleimoana
as the first Miss UTOPIA San Francisco, it set the pageant at an all time high,
since she is one of the most exotic land creatures here in the islands, as well
as a seafaring goddess, so witnessed by her recent water activities—Miss Hina
was spotted on a couple occasions down by Walls in Waikiki in surfshorts and
her biker bra, or so I was told by a little mynah bird. So in trying to follow in her footsteps and
compliment that standard set by her reign, I felt that I should arrive just as
I am and do nothing more then be myself!
As many of you know, being Cocoa is far beyond most common human thought
and probably not in anyone’s right mind!
And so we continue our story…
Arriving
in San Francisco at 9 o’clock at night we were greeted by none other than the
Queen of Tonga herself, Miss “Bee-each” Sedrick, as well as the very
huggable Muki. We proceeded home
to “The Woods” and very quickly readied ourselves for a night at The STUD for
“TrannyShack,” of course! The next
morning was a shopping day and then a meeting that evening for our first and
only rehearsal for the pageant. The
next evening we got to meet all of the contestants, and they were all so polite
and sweet! It was also very nice to
catch up with my Hawaiian brother, Tama (much love to you brother!). The next day Wade and Maddie
arrived as I was already there with that crazy “Jewish Beeeach” Doll-Ta,
so christened by the Queen of Tonga! It
was nice to have them there being that they had all of my stuff for the
pageant, especially the music for my talent, which I did not hear until that
very day. Therefore, your own Miss
Pepeiao had to remain home and practice my hula, which was basically on a piece
of paper with stick figure drawings since my kumu Nalani had left for
Japan before he could teach me.
With
one day left before the big event, we all went down to the Mission to get our
shopping on. What a day it was, so much
things to buy and so many things to see it was great to be back in my old
neighborhood as well and the highlight of the day was getting to meet up with
first the hottest newcomer in the film industry Gi-Won, better known to
most as Amnesia. We then met up with
our recently departed from the islands ‘Aha sister, Kiva Lei! So much love and Aloha surrounds us wherever
we go! Now it’s Saturday morning and
many last minute things needed to be taken care of, but with an amazing crew and
great trust in the universe, everything, as always, fell into place…“It's
Showtime!” Well, what can I say; it was
a great experience, and if you want to know more, please feel free to check out
our San Francisco website and get the juicy details (www.polyutopia.com). The DVD will be arriving soon! Mahalo once again to our gracious hosts
Sedrick, Tama, UTOPIA S.F., and especially to Doll-Ta, Maddie, Wade and UTOPIA
Hawai‘i.
On
the next order of things, some drastic changes have been
made—sexchanges, in fact!! (oops,
did I just say that?) And if you
got it or figured it out, I will personally give you a bag of Pueo poi! So much love to you, sweetie, and your new
“bean,” I mean “stream” in life!!! Also
one of our very own has just graduated with his Masters in Sexology, thus the
successful completion of his first patient Miss M!!! Nah, just kidding!! Congratulations Ni on your completion
in Social Work!
Now
aside from all of that seriousness, I would just like to briefly touch on our
recent UTOPIA excursion to the Polynesian Cultural Center and their “We Are
Samoa” festival out in the middle of Mormon country. (sidenote to God—I love your disciples, they are bred so
beautifully...ah, *sigh*…please, I beg your forgiveness as I have sinned and
thought of dirty things while I was there!) But yes, arriving at 10 in the morning and not leaving until 10
at night, I must say what a wonderful day it was! Being the haole Hawaiian that I am and a virgin to P.C.C., I
truly did play the tourist. I never had
so much fun witnessing all of the activities that day like the local high
school games competition, displaying such skill as cleaning green banana,
basket weaving and even making fire from two sticks and a husk of the
coconut! Then to see our Polynesian
brothers and sisters in the siva competition with the colleges coming out to
siva as well! Job well done for Emani,
Boy and Shiki!!! I had so
much fun and so did all of those in attendance that day, but it really made me
think how much we as Hawaiians, especially for myself, have missed out on a lot
of cultural practices and learning. We
take for granted the basic daily hands-on activities that for other places,
like Tonga and Samoa, are a means of their daily survival and existence as a
people. Your Miss UTOPIA is so proud to
see that so many of our youth now are trying to regain that which was lost to
our generation so many years ago. I
hope that with the love of other Polynesian cultures, we as a people can learn
and share as we so often do with other visiting cultures, not just because its
our job here in the tourist industry but because we love who we are and what we
share is more then what we are but more of that of the love that we experience
in sharing that love. (Did that make any sense?)
Needless to say, the sure highlight of the day was when one of our very
own got up on the P.C.C. stage for the mere winning of a CD. Jaimie (aka Miss Chili Pepper)
couldn’t help but share with the ENTIRE AUDIENCE that she was with a group
named UTOPIA Hawai‘i. When High
Chief Galea‘i asked what kind of group it was, she pointed to us with great
pride and proceeded to tell him, as well as thousands in the stadium, that we
are a “Mahu Group”!!! The crowd roared
in unbelievable screams of laughter!
H.C. Galea‘i then asked what we do, and Miss Jaimie eloquently informed
him that we offer HIV education and awareness, and that we help those with HIV
in our Polynesian community. The crowd,
being most of the Samoan community in Hawai‘i, cheered us on in our
efforts. So with that, “Malo lava
Jaimie!” It was ovah to be clocked at
P.C.C. if we weren’t already before that lovely incident!
Other
highlights included the acting skills of both Maka‘ahoa and Tui
playing a newlywed couple in the Marquesas village show, and then watching Tama
shake her Tahitian thing up on stage in, of course, the Tahiti village! Overall the night had ended too soon and
whilst in the back of the truck on the ride home, I laid there and gazed at the
stars and thought to myself how lucky I am to be living here in such a
wonderful and beautiful place and to have such loving and caring friends and
family always surrounding me—I am forever grateful to them and to God…
Aloha
for now and remember there are 3 things I love most and that is Love, Love, and
Love.