Charles W. Kenn

Charles William Kenn (January 2, 1907 – June 10, 1988) was a Hawaiian historian and cultural expert. Kenn was one of the last living practitioners of lua, a Hawaiian martial art, before he shared what he knew with a select group of students to continue the sacred tradition. In his scholarly writings, he resisted cultural assimilation of Hawaiians into American culture and defended the cultural practices of Native Hawaiians.

Early life, education, and career

Charles William Kenn was born in Honolulu on January 2, 1907. Kenn was descended from a line of kāhuna. Kenn graduated from President William McKinley High School, Hawaii's first public high school.

Kenn held a number of jobs, including work early in his adult life as a teacher at Central Union Church in Honolulu and on the Big Island. In a 1936 article, he wrote:

Kenn recorded Hawaiian chants from elders, preserving information about the Hawaiian language and cultural traditions. Many of his recordings became part of the collections of the Bishop Museum.

He wrote about the pronunciation of the word "Hawaii" in 1944, consulting with Polynesian and linguistic experts as well as relying on his own recordings of elder Hawaiians speaking and chanting, determining that "Haw-vah-eʻe" was historically accurate. In 1949 he wrote a short book titled Fire-walking from the inside : a report on four fire-walking performances in Honolulu, and a critical study of them from the point of view of the initiate fire-walker instead of that of the onlooker, discussing the prayers and rituals involved in firewalking. As a young man, he had learned lua from several teachers, including two who had trained at a royal lua school established by King Kalakaua. After four years of training he graduated a group of five ‘olohe (masters), who have continued teaching select students.

Death and legacy

Kenn died at his home in Kaneohe on June 10, 1988. A concert was held in 1984 honoring the recipients of the Na Makua Mahalo Ia Award, recognizing their contributions to the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s. "Uncle Charles" was one of the kūpuna (elders) celebrated for his work as a historian, ethnologist, lecturer, translator, social worker, and poet. The 1984 Ka Makahiki a Paani, an event dedicated to traditional Hawaiian sports and games, was dedicated to Kenn in recognition of his efforts in preserving and reviving those sports and games as well as the Makahiki celebration.

In 2006, four of Kenn's students published Lua: Art of the Hawaiian Warrior, describing the history and philosophy of lua, while continuing to keep the sacred aspects of the artform hidden.