Stick out your thumb and pinky, curl the other fingers down, and you've got a shaka, which is about to become America's first official state hand gesture. Hawaii legislators have passed a bill to recognize the shaka and it is on its way to the desk of Gov. Josh Green, Hawaii News Now reports. The gesture, known elsewhere as the "hang loose" sign, is used in many contexts. "If you say thank you, you give people a shaka," Maui kayak guide Ryan Arcia tells the Times of London. "If you see somebody that you know from across the way, you just throw each other a shaka. If you're letting somebody into your lane on the highway, you throw a shaka."
State Sen. Glenn Wakai, who sponsored the legislation, describes it as a "symbol of happiness," the Economist reports. Wakai says he wanted to make it the official state gesture before it was claimed by somewhere like California, which made surfing its official state sport in 2018. "Hawaii is the birthplace of surfing," he says. "How in the world did California claim it?" The gesture is also widely used in countries including Brazil. "As the shaka is now used around the world, this Act ensures that Hawaii retains recognition as the birthplace of the shaka," the bill passed by the state Senate on Wednesday states.
According to a bill passed by the state House earlier this year, the shaka "generally consists of extending the thumb and smallest finger while holding the three middle fingers curled, and gesturing in salutation while presenting the front or back of the hand; the wrist may be rotated back and forth for emphasis." Steve Sue, writer and director of the documentary Shaka: A Story of Aloha, says there are numerous theories about the origin of the shaka, the Times reports. His film, which premieres Friday, looks at six of them. In the most widely known story, Hamana Kalili, a Native Hawaiian man who lost three fingers in a sugar mill accident, made the sign as an all-clear when he was working as a guard on a sugar train. (More Hawaii stories.)
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