"If I don't sit down, I fall down!" she quipped. Beamer may be revered as a kupuna with a wealth of knowledge in hula and other aspects of culture, but she still loves a little joke.

But she wasn't joking in 1937 when, as a ninth-grader, she stood to dance as she chanted "Oli Aloha" during a tea party honoring school trustees. And school officials weren't joking when they unceremoniously booted her out of school for the offense. Hawaiian culture had been so suppressed that conversational Hawaiian language was discouraged and standing while performing hula was seen as vulgar.

Later, those who expelled her softened. Nona Beamer went on to graduate and join the faculty as a cultural specialist.

But Auntie Nona could not suppress her emotions, all the same, after watching Hawaiian language celebrated with awards. And then the Hawaiian Ensemble, the hula group that Beamer had founded, performed the dance, standing in the aisles of Ke'elikolani Auditorium.

"I don't know that I can speak," the characteristically chatty storyteller and kumu hula admitted to the audience. "The lump in my throat is too big."

Beamer gave each of 41 students in fifth-level Hawaiian language a pin bearing the likeness of the school founder, Pauahi Bishop. Yesterday marked the debut of the pin, said language teacher Kawika Eyre and, in presenting the badge of honor, Beamer was passing the torch, encouraging students to persist with their language studies in the face of other academic and extracurricular pressures.

In the spring, he said, these students would award similar pins to their kaikaina (younger siblings), the Level 4 students, who in turn would present pins to the third level.

"We want the older sibling to connect to the younger," Eyre said. "It's the passing of the mana (spiritual power), which is culturally appropriate. And we want them to see that she (Beamer) had been an inspiration to them starting out."

For her part, Beamer would say the feeling is mutual. The kumu spent much of the past week meeting with students on the Kapalama campus.

"It's been so inspiring to me and so humbling," she said before the ceremony began.

"They're warm. Their sincerity ... they just come up to me like I was their real auntie. That really touched me.

"And the family resemblances — I recognize them because of their parents. I say, 'You're the Kamakas, aren't you?' And they say, 'Yes.' "

It was difficult for the students, all of whom grew up after the Hawaiian cultural renaissance began, to understand fully how much times had changed, she said.

"I don't think they comprehend that, really," Beamer said. "They haven't felt the hurt."

Instead, she said, they seemed to be filled with good feelings.

"I didn't hear any unkind words from anyone. ... There was kindness, love and generosity in their heart.

"I'm sorry I couldn't speak," she added. "The darned lump in my throat. ..."

The start of the pinning tradition was one historic moment observed yesterday, school principal Anthony Ramos said during the ceremony.

"Another historic moment," he added with a smile as Beamer choked back tears, "is that Auntie Nona has kept her remarks very brief."