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Bishop Museum inspires our community and visitors through the exploration, celebration, and perpetuation
of the extraordinary history, culture, science, and natural environment of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific.
Vol. VIII No. 4 | April 2025
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Mary Kawena Pukui working with Ka Naʻi Aupuni, a 19th century Hawaiian-language newspaper,
at Bishop Museum. October, 1957. Mori Yamada, Camera Hawaii, Bishop Museum Archives. SP 28859.
Connections Linking Past, Present, and Future
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by the Bishop Museum Communications Team
This Friday, April 11, in partnership with the Mary Kawena Pukui Preservation Society, Bishop Museum is proud to present Nānā i ke Kumu: Celebrating the Legacy of Mary Kawena Pukui. This special Museum After Hours event will be held from 5-9 p.m. throughout our 15-acre campus, and we invite our community to join us in honoring our beloved Mrs. Pukui with an evening of tributes by ʻahahui Hawaiʻi [Hawaiian organizations] with mele, hula, and special presentations.
A titan in Hawaiian cultural preservation, Mary Kawena Pukui spent over 50 years documenting, translating, and compiling Hawaiian knowledge systems during a time when Hawaiian culture and traditions were being lost. Her body of work amounts to one of the most significant contributions to our understanding of Hawaiian culture today.
Mrs. Pukui worked at Bishop Museum while recording and documenting the largest library of oral histories of her time. She produced and translated more than 50 seminal publications throughout her life and posthumously, including the “Hawaiian-English Dictionary,” “‘Ōlelo No‘eau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings,” and “Native Planters in Old Hawai‘i: Their Life, Lore, and Environment.” Her influence and legacy continues to be felt and honored by many in our Bishop Museum ʻOhana.
“I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know the name Mary Kawena Pukui,” shares Elizabeth Pualani Steele, Bishop Museum Archives special projects manager. “My father, Dwayne Nakila Steele, met her when he moved to Hawaiʻi in the 1950s through his mentor John Kameaaloha Almeida. My father continued to support her and others’ efforts to perpetuate the Hawaiian language for the rest of his life.”
“He passed when I was 18 years old, but I still catch his little handwritten notes in the margins of old papers and first drafts, musing over things they spoke about or things she wrote that inspired him to find more ways, more avenues to support the Hawaiian people that so kindly welcomed him into their home.”
Pualani’s work in the Museum’s Archives includes the preservation and digitization of Hawaiian language newspapers through the “He Aupuni Palapala” project, in partnership with Awaiaulu Inc. and under the guidance of Sahoa Fukushima, Kapalaiʻula de Silva, and Kauʻi Sai-Dudoit.
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Photo: Unbound issues of Ko Hawaii Pae Aina belonging to the Hawaiian language newspaper collection of the Hawaiian Historical Society. Most nūpepa were printed on newsprint, a medium that deteriorates rapidly. Thankfully, no text was lost in this pile of debris. Photo by Kapalaiʻula de Silva, 2023.
Pualani shares, “Mary Kawena Pukui
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worked closely with nūpepa ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi [Hawaiian language newspapers]. She had impeccable foresight and a keen ability to recognize and record that which would one day become so precious, so invaluable to the next generations. Preserving nūpepa and the ʻike [knowledge] within it was highly important to her.”
“Nūpepa will not be around forever,” said Pualani. “Newsprint was not meant to last, and century old, brittle pages are quickly turning into confetti. We will continue to lose people. That is the way of life. What we can do is preserve what they left us, and with that their aloha, their wisdom, and their guidance.”
Pualani’s connections with Mrs. Pukui extend beyond her work with Bishop Museum.
“I also learned about Mary Kawena Pukui from my kumu hula, and we continue to teach the keiki in our hālau her name and how they are connected to her through the mele and hula passed down to us from our kumu,” she shares.
Pualani joined Hālau Mōhala ʻIlima in 1996 and has been a student of Māpuana and Kīhei de Silva ever since. She graduated ʻōlapa huʻelepo from Aunty Māpu in 2006 and ʻōlapa ʻailolo in 2012. She was invited to ʻūniki [graduate] as a kumu hula in 2021 alongside three of her hula sisters: Makanani Akiona, Lilinoe Sterling, and Kapua Sterling.
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Photo: Left to right: Pualani Steele, Kapuahelani Sterling, Lilinoekekapahauomaunakea Sterling, and
Makanani Akiona. Home Pūnāwai, Kaʻōhao, Kailua, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. Nicholas Tomasello, September 19, 2021.
“There have always been six portraits of kūpuna [elders] on the wall in our hālau, watching over us as we take in lessons in Hawaiian language, history, and values, and the behaviors that come to identify us as poʻe hula [hula people] from our hula lineage,” she said. “One portrait is of Aunty Māpu’s kumu, Maiki Aiu Lake. Two are of Aunty Maiki’s hula sisters, Lani ‘Nana’ Kalama and Sally Wood Naluai. Above them are the portraits of Lokalia Montgomery, Patience Namaka Bacon, and Mary Kawena Pukui. These women make up the foundation that we stand upon, passed down to us through our own Kumu Māpuana.”
“In hula, it was understood that learning came from a clear, trusted source. Working in the Library & Archives allows me to regularly interact with primary resources. Some of the most meaningful moments are when I come across something that shows me just how well my kumu did what she set out to do. It is truly moving realizing how amazing it is to know these mele and hula, as they were received, from one clear source to another and on down the line.”
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Photo: Left to right: Alice Namakelua, Mary Kawena Pukui, and Lokalia Montgomery sitting in the middle section of the front row of guests at the Papa ʻIlima ʻŪniki ma lalo o Maiki Aiu Lake. This year marks their 25th anniversary. Home Pumehana, Pūpūkea, Koʻolauloa, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. Wayne Iha, August 31, 1975.
“The bodies of work left by Mary Kawena
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Pukui and her hānai Patience Namaka Bacon provide us with a connection between past and present, and an opportunity to extend that connection into the future. As we inevitably lose the generation of kūpuna that raised us – their ʻōlelo, their ʻike, their leo [voice] – we become reliant on the efforts of the historians, archivists, and practitioners that devoted their lives to ensuring we always have a roadmap that leads us back to our kūpuna and to ourselves,” said Pualani.
In reflecting on her current work at the Museum, and her own personal journey, Pualani invites us to learn more about the history and culture of our island homes, as well as Mrs. Pukui’s efforts to preserve them.
“I encourage people to learn more about He Aupuni Palapala via our weekly social media campaign, #NūhouMonday. The posts link to an ongoing blog that offers a glimpse of the vast and varied content found in nūpepa articles translated by our team, with occasional updates on our process and progress. It is a must-read for anyone interested in Hawaiian knowledge, culture, and history.”
“Everyone living here should know about Mary Kawena Pukui and all she’s done for Hawaiʻi. It is important to understand not only the genealogy of people, but the lineage of the practices and knowledge that we still have today. Having a source is important. Understanding and recognizing each other’s sources is important. Mary Kawena Pukui was, and still is, a profound source for every person who calls this place home.”
| | Photo: Left to right: Puanani Connelly, Kumu Māpuana de Silva, Pualani Steele, and Puakenamu Leong dancing at Kīlauea, Hawaiʻi. Nicholas Tomasello, April 17, 2023. | | | |
Dr. Mary Hattori. Photo courtesy of the Celebrate Micronesia Festival organizers.
We’re honored to once again host the Celebrate Micronesia Festival on Saturday, May 3! This year, Dr. Mary Therese Perez Hattori is generously matching every donation towards this critical community program up to $5,000!
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