The Georgetown University Hawai‘i Club will celebrate its 27th lūʻau, featuring hula performances, live music and authentic Hawaiian food, on April 28.

Hawai‘i Club selected the theme of “kuleana,” which translates to responsibility in the Hawaiian language, for the lūʻau’s displays of Hawaiian culture and student-coordinated dance and music. Tickets for the Georgetown community are free in order to incentivize donations to partners of the project during the lūʻau to give back to organizations supporting Hawaiian culture. 

Frances Virginia Muaña (CAS ’26), the marketing director of Hawai‘i Club, said that the mission of the lūʻau is raising money for charitable causes, especially following the wildfires that decimated thousands of buildings and took hundreds of lives in Lahaina, Maui. 

“We’re partnering with Project Vision Hawai‘i,” Muaña told The Hoya. “They have a shelter on Maui that particularly caters to residents of Lahaina who were homeless even prior to the fire, it’s called Pu‘uhonua o Nēnē.” 

“We’ve been doing a little bit of work throughout the year, particularly through our spam musubi nights, raising awareness and trying to get people to donate to different nonprofits and organizations that are involved in the rebuilding process of Lahaina,” Muaña added. 

Project Vision Hawaiʻi, a nonprofit organization, works to expand access to health care services across the state.

Reese Yoshikawa (CAS ’26), an active member of the club, said that lūʻau functions not only as a representation of Hawaiian culture on campus, but also as a space for Hawaiian students to feel comfortable away from home.

“At Georgetown, lūʻau is really to bring Hawai‘i to campus and to give people a chance to see our culture and our heritage, and recently, it’s also become a fundraising goal to help serve two purposes,” Yoshikawa told The Hoya. “There’s the purpose of bringing people into the community, but also bringing home back to us.” 

Mara Goldstein (CAS ’27), a first-year representative, said that the club’s board of directors chose kuleana as this year’s theme for lūʻau because of its place in Hawaiian culture as a catchphrase for the word “duty.”

“It was our first thought, it’s a kind of common word,” Goldstein told The Hoya. “And in Hawai‘i, a lot of people say it to us growing up and going to elementary school and being around teachers. They’ll always be saying, ‘This is your kuleana’ and ‘This is what you must do.’”

Goldstein said that Hawai‘i has a wide homeless population that is often not acknowledged as much as the state’s wildfires. 

“The wildfires are what people like to think of the most when they think of Hawai‘i, but they don’t really acknowledge that there are a lot of other problems, including the unhoused population,” Goldstein said. 

Yoshikawa added that kuleana as a theme helps raise awareness about Hawaiian history and modern issues such as improving living conditions for Hawaiian people.

“Kuleana is very much about spreading the message of what happened in order to secure a better future for native Hawaiian people,” Yoshikawa said. “Kuleana translates almost directly to responsibility.”

Yoshikawa also said that the lūʻau has enabled the Hawai‘i Club’s board to elevate Hawaiian voices, considering the archipelago’s deep-rooted colonial history.

“A lot of the time, Hawaiian people don’t have a voice and have had their culture suppressed because of colonization,” Yoshikawa said.

Goldstein added that she hopes future first-year students will get involved with lūʻau to expand their understanding of Hawaiian culture beyond tourism. 

“Lūʻau is a good chance to get to know Hawaiian culture and not just think Hawai‘i is a big tourist destination. Open your minds,” Goldstein said. “Open your hearts. Understand the idea of kuleana and take care of the people around you.”