Kaila Chung is bringing hula to Kentucky’s Bluegrass region. As an alakaʻi of Kumu Kawika Keikialiʻi Alfiche, Chung has led Hui Kaululehua in Louisville since 2022.
“The hui is my soulmate, and hula is the most important thing that I do,” said Chung, 34. But it took time for her to forge that path.
Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Chung spent her childhood traveling the world because of her parents’ U.S. Army careers. Her dad, Norman Kauila Chung, was born in Honolulu to a Hawaiian-Chinese father and a Japanese mother. Her mom, Dei Chung, claims mostly German ancestry.
The young family moved to Richmond, Virginia, where Chung’s brother, Zach Kauila Chung, was born. They were then stationed in Seoul, South Korea. In third grade, Chung and her ʻohana settled in Louisville.
Throughout her adolescence, Chung mainly connected with her Chinese and Japanese roots. “Culture was always an important part of our household, but our Hawaiian ancestry just didn’t really come up a lot,” she said.
In middle school, Chung recalled standing out: the rare Asian student, an “exoticized” mixed-race kid, a tall girl compared to her peers.
Though she gravitated toward academics, a teacher encouraged her to try out for the basketball team. The sport became a constant for her, in addition to volleyball.
Her call to do mission work came during middle school. Chung accompanied her family, conservative Southern Baptists, on a mission trip to China. And after graduating from Atherton High School in 2009, Chung joined her youth group on a mission trip to Brazil.
At the University of Kentucky, she majored in English education for her first two years before switching to being an English major. Chung’s college life revolved around the Christian Student Fellowship. Her junior year, she attended Passion, a convention for Christian youth, in Atlanta, Georgia. The focus: human trafficking.
“I felt this very sudden shift that this is the work that I needed to be doing,” Chung said.
After finishing her bachelor’s degree in 2013, she enrolled at the University of Louisville to earn a master’s degree in social work.
2014 marked a monumental year for other reasons, too. Chung began working as a victim advocate on domestic violence and sexual assault cases at the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office. She also started learning hula and ʻOri Tahiti at a studio, ʻIke Roa.
“That really started my journey into connecting with our Kānaka roots,” she said.
Over the next few years, Chung danced. She got married and divorced. She graduated in 2018, and, in 2019, she joined the Louisville Metro Police Department – a job she holds to this day.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chung met Kumu Kawika and his hālau over Zoom. After separating from ʻIke Roa, she established a hui under Kumu Kawika’s hula lineage in 2022. Her haumāna – many of Polynesian descent – now number around 20 and in May, Hui Kaululehua hosted its first Polynesian cultural festival, Aloha Lou!
Next year’s event is already in the works – along with the concept of the Hui Kaululehua Cultural Center, which Chung hopes will one day serve as “an embodiment of the safe space that we want to create for Polynesian folks.”
While Chung is deconstructing her religious faith, she’s embracing her Kanaka identity.
“The oppression of the Hawaiian people has been long standing, and we’re still here,” Chung said. “We’re still telling these stories, and that’s why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
This article is reprinted with permission from OHA's Ka Wai Ola newspaper: "Bringing hula to Kentucky" by Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, in its February 2026 issue, Vol. 43 No. 2. Read more at kawaiola.news.
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