Amber Maikui might be more than 4,000 miles away from her hometown of Honolulu, but she feels right at home whenever she gets to perform hula with her daughter.

“It warms my soul when we come to halau every Sunday,” says Maikui, who lives in Bowie, Md. “Finding this group, it was like finding home again.”

Although she grew up on Oahu, Maikui says her career with the U.S. Army took her “all over” – including the D.C. region. When her active duty service was over, she and her family first moved back to Hawaii, but soon after resettled in Maryland. Ever since, the mother-daughter duo (at the request of Maikui’s mother) have been practicing with Halau Nohona Hawai’i, a Native Hawaiian cultural organization based in Silver Spring.

The halau, or dance school that Maikui attends, was co-founded by Kaimana Chee in 2014 and provides weekly classes in hula, music, and singing. Chee started performing at the age of six and was eventually given the title of kumu, which means teacher. Now, he says it’s his life’s commitment to honor and pass on those traditions, especially to the local community.

“No matter where I am in the world, I want to share aloha,” says Chee. “I’ve always felt… that I need to be a perpetrator and a sharer of Hawaiian culture.”

Maikui’s daughter, Zailey Tiller says on the mainland, it can sometimes be hard to find people who share her Native Hawaiian identity – something both she and her family don’t want to lose.

“I get to connect with people that have the same culture as me, and it’s a way for me to connect to home from far away,” says Tiller.

In honor of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander heritage this month, Halau Nohona Hawai’i held a ho’ike, or performance, at the auditorium of Northwood High School in Silver Spring on Saturday. Accompanied by the sounds of live guitar, ukulele, and ipu – a percussion instrument made from a gourd – the group wanted to highlight the history of hula, which was once outlawed in Hawaii.

The group performed “Lili’u E,” which was dedicated to the last sovereign monarch, Queen Liliʻuokalani, before she was overthrown in 1893 and the islands annexed by the U.S. just a few years later.

“We wanted to honor the Queen through that very traditional hula and pay tribute to her for all she’s done for our people,” says Chee.

Isaac Hoʻopiʻi, who was born in Oahu and came to Virginia through his service in the U.S. Army, says he gets to share performances in the halau with his children and grandchildren. Both he and his grandson, Noah, play guitar and string instruments together during the ho’ike. For Hoʻopiʻi, that’s especially meaningful in perpetuating his culture for generations to come.

“My kids and their kids are dancing and, hopefully, [they will] pass the torch to young ones that can still carry on the tradition of sharing Hawaiian music or the aloha spirit,” says Hoʻopiʻi, who lives in Vienna, Va.

It’s not just Native Hawaiians who are part of Halau Nohona Hawai’i. The group also has a number of members from other cultural backgrounds, such as Samoans, Filipinos, and even white Americans, who care deeply about Hawaiian heritage. For Hoʻopiʻi, that’s a good thing.

“Not only being a native Hawaiian from Hawaii, but seeing all the different cultures coming together, learning how to share that aloha, is awesome,” says Hoʻopiʻi.

Doreen Barker, who is Samoan and Filipino, was born and raised in Hawaii before moving to Virginia. While it’s been hard being away from her home, she says Halau Nohona Hawai’i has made it that much easier. She even gets to perform alongside her son, Ricky.

“Finding halau was one of the best things I could find here because I was getting very homesick and we were ready to move back home or move to the West Coast,” says Barker. “So it’s just been such an amazing journey and can’t wait for more adventures to come.”

Napualokelani Kamakele, who is a Native Hawaiian, has been part of the group since 2017 and now serves as part of the group’s leadership team. She says that Polynesians are sometimes forgotten, but that it’s all the more reason to be proud of who she is. She wants the halau to continue teaching the next generation to love and embrace their identity.

“Even just the way we talk, the way we speak, what we talk about, how we eat our food, the kinds of food that we eat,” says Kamakele. “It’s just so important to stay grounded and to be connected to our roots back home.”