This year at the 2026 Met Gala, Dwayne Johnson walked the red carpet in a pleated skirt. The internet lost its mind. However, what he said next is what actually matters.
“In our culture, Polynesian culture, we rock lavalavas, we rock skirts. The most masculine men — not that I’m one of them — but the most masculine men wear lavalavas and skirts.”
He was not making a fashion statement. He was making a cultural one. And if you want to truly understand what he meant, the best luau in Oahu is the place to feel it for yourself.
What The Rock Was Really Talking About
The lavalava is the Polynesian version of a wraparound skirt worn by men across the Pacific islands for centuries. In Fiji specifically, warriors wore the liku — a grass skirt woven from hibiscus and plant fibers — as their battle dress.
Not casual wear. Battle dress.
The use of body paint and grass skirts was symbolic of the connection between the people and nature, as well as a tribute to their ancestors. The warrior attire was not just a display of Fijian history but a way to honor the traditions passed down through generations. These garments reflect Fiji’s past as a warrior society where strength and bravery were vital cultural values.
So when The Rock stood on the Met Gala carpet and pointed to this tradition, he was pulling from thousands of years of warrior identity. The grass skirt was never about aesthetics. It was about mana — the spiritual power carried in every stitch, every fiber, every movement of the man wearing it.
The Most Feared Warriors in the Pacific Wore Grass Skirts
Here is something that changes how you think about this.
The reputation of Fijians as fierce warriors — as well as the difficulty of navigating the reefs around the islands — initially dissuaded most travelers from visiting. Even Captain William Bligh, who sailed through Fijian waters after the famous mutiny on the Bounty, was chased from their shores by Fijian warriors.
Furthermore, amongst all the Pacific cultures, Fiji showed perhaps the most innovation in the development of efficient and fearsome weapons. Fijian weapons sometimes had distinctive notches or even human teeth inlaid into them, indicating a warrior keeping score of his successes in direct combat.
These were not men who needed the approval of the Western world. They built canoes that crossed open ocean. They developed weapons that made European explorers turn their ships around. They forged one of the most sophisticated warrior cultures in human history.
And they did all of it in grass skirts.
Far from evoking femininity, observers note the sulu’s ironically masculine appeal, rooted in practical adaptation to tropical environments and historical colonial influences that have since been indigenized as symbols of stoic manhood.
That single sentence says everything.
Why the Grass Skirt Is a Uniform, Not a Costume
There is a distinction that matters deeply here. Additionally, it is one that most people visiting Hawaii never learn.
In ceremonial contexts, men may wear traditional warrior attire which includes grass skirts, body paint, and headbands. This attire is often seen during Fijian festivals or performances where it plays a crucial role in preserving and showcasing Fiji’s warrior history.
The body paint was not decoration. It was intimidation — a deliberate psychological strategy used to unsettle enemies before combat even began. Highland warriors would paint themselves in war patterns, using red often associated with aggression or blood and black for power or to appear fearsome, to psychologically unnerve their foes.
Each element of warrior dress told a story. The grass skirt communicated clan identity, warrior status, and ancestral connection simultaneously. Consequently, stripping the garment of its context — reducing it to a prop or a costume — removes the very thing that gives it power.
That is why the men who perform in the Fijian section at Mauka Warriors Luau do not wear costumes. They wear a tradition.
What Happened When the West Arrived
Here is a part of this history that is rarely discussed, and it deserves to be.
Strong, melanin glowing iTaukei Fijian loins covered by the malo and liku were condemned by missionaries as uncivilized, even though for their lifestyle and climate, what the first people wore was logical and intelligent.
The sulu — the wraparound skirt that is now Fiji’s national dress — was not originally a Fijian garment at all. The first sulus were brought by missionaries coming from Tonga in the nineteenth century and were initially worn by iTaukei Fijians to indicate their conversion to Christianity.
Think about that. The garment that the world now associates most with Fijian identity was introduced as a tool of colonial assimilation. Fijians adopted it, transformed it, and made it entirely their own — until today it is worn in parliament, by the military, and in the highest courts of law in the country.
A Fijian man walks into parliament in a sulu and it means authority, not exoticism. The garment has won.
That is not a small story. That is a civilization refusing to be erased — absorbing what was forced upon them and turning it into something that carries more cultural weight than anything the colonizers intended.
The Sulu Today: Authority Worn on the Body
Today the sulu is not just cultural dress. It is official dress.
Fijian men don tailored pocket sulus for business, court proceedings, and official duties, where dark variants paired with jackets denote professional gravitas as stipulated in judicial dress codes. Military personnel and palace guards incorporate the sulu into uniforms, underscoring its role in projecting authoritative presence and cultural continuity.
Moreover, even the military includes the sulu in their uniforms for special ceremonies. The Fijian military’s ceremonial sulu features a distinctive zigzag hem — a detail that is specifically designed to signal rank, discipline, and cultural pride simultaneously.
So when Dwayne Johnson stood at the Met Gala and said the most masculine men wear skirts, he was not being provocative. He was being accurate. The entire documented history of Fijian warrior and civic culture backs him up completely.
Why This Makes Mauka Warriors Luau the Best Luau in Oahu
Most luaus in Oahu give you a grass skirt as a prop and call it culture. They dress performers in garments they cannot tell you the history of. They run through the islands like items on a checklist.
Mauka Warriors Luau does the opposite.
The Fijian warriors who take our stage every night wear their traditional warrior attire because they carry the meaning of it. The grass skirt is not part of the show. It is the point of the show. When those men step into the light with body paint, traditional dress, and the kind of presence that made European explorers reroute their ships, you feel something shift in the room.
That is not performance. That is mana. And it is exactly what The Rock was pointing to on the Met Gala carpet — the understanding that identity is not weakened by tradition. It is built on it.
Furthermore, the Fijian segment is only one chapter of the evening at Mauka Warriors. The night moves through the warrior history of Hawaii, the unconquered royal guard of Tonga, the fierce tradition of Fiji, the power of Tahiti and the Cook Islands, and finally the largest fire knife show on Oahu from the warriors of Samoa.
Each island. Each tradition. Each performed with the full weight of its history behind it.
That combination — authentic culture, real warrior tradition, live music, an all-you-can-eat Polynesian feast, and a show that opens with the legend of the Night Marchers — is why Mauka Warriors Luau consistently earns the title of best luau in Oahu from guests who have seen every option on the island.
Come See What The Rock Was Talking About
The conversation The Rock started at the Met Gala is one that Polynesian communities have been having for generations. Strength is not defined by what Western fashion says is masculine. It never was.
The warriors of Fiji knew that thousands of years ago. They wore their identity into battle. They carried their mana in the fibers of their garments. They built a reputation that outlasted colonization, outlasted missionary suppression, and outlasted every attempt to make them something they were not.
Tonight on Oahu, that tradition is alive.
Come see the best luau in Oahu and experience the culture that The Rock reminded the world is worth knowing.
