Hawaiian Rodeo – a Cultural Melting Pot

Clockwise from top left: 1) one of the under-age-six sheep riders, left in the dust;  2) rodeo footwear; 3) calf roping;  4) calf riding — All photos taken at the Parker Ranch Labor Day Rodeo in Waimea, Hawaii.

Until a few weeks ago, I (Marsha) had no idea there were cowboys on Hawaii. Now I’ve experienced a bit of their culture, which stitches together people and traditions from several cultures.

On Sunday of Labor Day Weekend, Mike and I attended the Parker Ranch Round-Up Scholarship Rodeo in Waimea. Turns out that back in 1788, British Captain George Vancouver gave 5 cattle to King Kamehameha I of Hawaii. The cattle reproduced and became a nuisance until in 1812 Massachusetts-born John Palmer Parker was given permission by the King to start commercially selling the meat and hides. Parker married the king’s daughter, and later, when King Kamehameha III changed the law to allow private property, the Parker Ranch was started. The Parker family recruited Mexican cowboys (called “paniolos” because they spoke “espanol”) to herd the cattle. The ranch was once over 500,000 acres, but now covers “only” 250,000 acres (about 390 square miles) of the high land on the slopes of Mauna Kea — almost 10% of the island!

Despite the huge size of the ranch, the rodeo was very much a small-town, family affair, raising money for college scholarships for the children of Parker Ranch employees. The names of participants reflected the colorful mix of ethnicities that make up Hawaii’s population: Japanese, Hawaiian, Filipino, and who knows what else. I was also struck by how much gender equality there was — there were probably as many cowgirls as cowboys. The overriding sense I had was that Hawaiians have truly embraced the “paniolo” culture and enjoy passing it along from one generation to the next.

While we didn’t stay for the traditional bull riding, we did get up close views of:

• Sheep riding for age six and under. (I couldn’t get a good photo because the winner only stayed on his sheep for 5 seconds!)
• Team Roping – in which one cowboy (or cowgirl) ropes the calf’s neck, and the other ropes the calf’s back leg, effectively toppling the poor critter.
• Double Mugging – in which one cowboy ropes the calf from a horse, then a second cowboy runs in and grabs the rope and works his way along until he can grab the calf’s head. As soon as the second cowboy has a good grip, the first cowboy jumps off his horse, grabs the calf’s front leg off the ground, and the two cowboys wrestle the calf to the ground so they can tie three of its legs together. If all goes well, it takes about 20 seconds.  If not, the audience gets to cheer as the wrestling continues for up to 2 minutes before the timer calls a halt.
• And my favorite, a couple’s version of Double Mugging called Ribbon Roping. In this version, the cowboy ropes the calf, the cowgirl grabs the calf’s head, the cowboy then dismounts and tries to grab the pink ribbon that has been tied to the calf’s tail. Awfully hard to get behind a thrashing calf! Once the ribbon is grabbed, the cowboy and cowgirl have to run, hand-in-hand, to touch a barrel to stop the clock. Lot’s of laughter on this one! Probably even more if you know the couple!

It was fun to see the cowboy culture up close: small children riding horses they could have easily walked under; groups of young kids playing at bull-riding by climbing on each other and getting bucked off; kids and adults alike decked out in cowboy boots, spurs, jeans, and big buckles. While the beaches of Big Island cater to tourist families, at the Rodeo, I had a sense of being part of a large, local family.