Different Cultures, Same Values

Erin Comeaux
Aug 9, 2017 · 5 min read

Growing up as a Cajun from South Louisiana, family is everything. Every holiday it was expected to kiss every cousin, aunt, uncle, nanny, parran, granny and paw before you could even touch any food or sit down. We are super loud. We love to cook. We love to eat. And we all love to get together, whether it is for the holidays or just for a good Ol’ Boucherie.

My extended family is pretty close. We like to joke around a lot. There was always somebody doing something funny or telling a dramatic story and making us all laugh.

We are friendly, goofy, hospitable, passionate, and very protective of our family. I’m especially close with my five sisters. We are all ride or die for each other. We might fight between the six of us, but don’t mess with one of my sisters! This is pretty much what most Cajun families are like.

Before my trip to Hawaii, I thought that no culture was more about family than the Cajun culture. Well, I was wrong. The Hawaiian culture is as much about family as the Cajun culture if not more.

The first week I got here I went to a memorial cookout on the beach with one of my Hawaiian friends. The memorial cook out was for his uncle who past away 4 years ago to the day from cancer. I ask how many years in a row do they throw a party in remembrance of him. My friend said, “As many years as we can.”

So just like the Cajun culture, they too have to hug and kiss everyone hello right when they get there, but that’s not it. Whoever he or she brings also has to kiss and hug everyone hello. At this cook out it wasn’t just immediate and extended family. This was a Huge cookout where second and third cousins were there too. So, since I was the guest, I too had to hug and kiss hello and introduce myself to everyone there, which was a ton of people.

Before anyone could serve themselves, we all had to say grace together. We had to make a gigantic circle holding hands with our heads bowed while one of the Hawaiian relatives prayed on the microphone. At the end of the prayer, instead of saying amen they said “Imua! Imua! Imua!” Imua is the Hawaiian word for Forward. When they say this, it means never give up; alway continue and move forward.

Since I have been in Maui, I have had the privilege of going to the Jaramillo’s family land in the West Maui Valley to harvest kalo. Kalo is the Hawaiian name given to the cultivated plant, taro. This plant is considered by some to be the world’s oldest cultivated crop.

Usually when the Hawaiians harvest Kalo, they do it as a family. To harvest this crop you have to get bare foot in the warm mud and pull it out root by root with your bare hands. Definitely don’t get a mani-pedi right before doing this. My first reaction to walking bare foot in the warm squishy mud was to squeal like a baby pig because it felt so gross. Lol.

Once you pull the kalo out, you have to try and knock most of the mud off all the stringy roots by dragging it back and forth in the shallow water. That part wasn’t easy. I ended up getting mud everywhere. I even managed to somehow get it on both my eye lids.

They laughed at me and asked if I have ever done anything like this before that I had to get down and dirty. I said, “Mais Yeah! Me and ma momma get all dirty when we go get some oysters off the oyster beds in Fourchon. The only difference is my toes and finger nails don’t get all dirty cause I wear ma shrimping boots and my pink latex dish washing gloves.”

After living in Hawaii for almost four weeks now, I have noticed a lot of similarities between the Cajun and the Hawaiian family culture values. They too are very passionate and protective of their families. Ohana means family in Hawaiian. They say Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten. I’ve never seen a culture that’s more ride or die for their family, its actually kinda scary. I wouldn’t mind having one of them have my back.

With all the similarities and all the differences between the two cultures, it comes down to one thing. Family is everything. Ohana is everything.

    Erin Comeaux

    Written by

    Eat Pray Maui

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