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Aloha Chant

Written by Pilahi Paki and Eddie Kamae. The song is Pilahi’s definition of aloha that she shared with Eddie and the world. The story is about her message of aloha and how they starting working together in the early 1960s after Eddie’s friend, Kurt Johnson, introduced them.

Pūʻolo contains

  • lyrics and translations
  • song story
  • educational questions
  • music sheets
  • bibliography
  • resources from Kamae archive

Listen with Lyrics

Press play in the video and open the lyrics or music sheets to follow along.

Recording from the 1998 album The Folk Music of Hawaii: Sons of Hawaii (track 14). Performed by Eddie Kamae and The Sons of Hawaii. © ℗ Panini Records Inc., used with permission.

Watch Video Clips on YouTube and ʻUluʻulu

YouTube videos are documentary clips and full song performances.
ʻUluʻulu videos link to short preview clips from raw footage.

Pilahi Paki explains the meaning of aloha. Eddie Kamae explains how he first met Pilahi Paki and how they collaborated on the “Aloha Chant” song in the documentary, Those Who Came Before: The Musical Journey of Eddie Kamae.

Eddie Kamae at the Chozen-ji Zen Buddhist Dojo explains the importance of the “Aloha Chant” song to him in the documentary, Those Who Came Before: The Musical Journey of Eddie Kamae.

Eddie Kamae shares what his three teachers told him to do and how it connects to the second verse of the “Aloha Chant” song.

Second verse and chorus of “Aloha Chant” with hula performed by Puna Dawson, the daughter of Kumu Hula Lani Kalama, her daughter Denby Dawson, and Minori Evans at the Chozen-ji Zen Buddhist Dojo in Kalihi, Oʻahu while sung by Eddie Kamae.

Short preview clip of Lani Kalama’s hālau and the Sons of Hawaiʻi performing “Aloha Chant” at the Chozen-ji Zen Buddhist Dojo with Nana Veary. Full footage available through ʻUluʻulu.

Eddie Kamae reflects on Tanouye Tenshin Rotaishi, the archbishop at the Chozen-ji Zen Buddhist Dojo, telling him to sing the “Aloha Chant” song.

Moe Keale reflects on Pilahi Paki, her message of Aloha, and the day she shared it at Kennedy Theater.

B-roll footage of Kennedy Theater on the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa campus. Clip also shows Wailana Coffee House in Waikīkī.

To explore more of our digitized collections of raw footage with ʻUluʻulu, visit:
Hawaiian Legacy Foundation: Eddie & Myrna Kamae.

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