Mary Kawena Pukui, 1983.

KAWENA

Guardian of the Hawaiian Language

By Helen Altonn, Star-Bulletin Writer

SAMUEL H. Elbert vividly recalls the first time he met Mary Kawena Pukui. “She had a flower in her hair and she just captivated me.”

That was in 1937, on the top floor of the Bishop Museum. Pukui, affectionately called Kawena, had just joined the staff as a translator. She was working with E. S. C. Handy, an ethnologist, on a book entitled “Polynesian Family System at Kaʻu,” the Big Island home of her Hawaiian mother’s family. Continue reading

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The importance of things past, 1864.

Ancient matters of Hawaii nei.

Those who have knowledge of what the people of Hawaii were like in the old days are disappearing, and if these things are not written down and saved, the knowledge will be gone for good. Therefore I encourage those who know to write it down at once and make it known, so that those of the future generations will know what their kupuna were like. Here below are some ancient things to search out and to publish. Continue reading

Story of Kamapuaa by G. W. Kahiolo, 1861.

HE MOOLELO NO KAMAPUAA.

Helu.—1.

Ma ka mookuauhau no Kamapuaa a loaa mai oia; oia keia e hoikeia aku nei, i mea e ikeia ai kona ano kupanaha, a me kona ikaika ma ke kaua ana, a me ke ano e o kona kino, a me kana mau hana. O keia kanaka, ua hoomana ia no i akua e ko Hawaii nei poe; aka, aole o’u manao lana, ua ku like loa ka poe kuauhau a pau e noho mai nei, aole no hoi akaka ka mea pololei loa; no ka mea, aole hookahi o lakou mea e ola ana, i ike i na mea i hanaia ia wa, aole no hoi o lakou mea i kakau buke mookuauhau nana, a waiho mai na kana mau pua; no ka mea, he pono paanaau wale no, a nalowale iho.

….

[This is the opening of the Kamapuaa story by G. W. Kahiolo [aka G. W. Poepoe]. It ran as a serial in the newspaper Hae Hawaii from 6/26 to 9/25/1861. This story was translated by Esther T. Mookini and Erin C. Neizmen with the assistance of David Tom, and put out by the University of Hawaii at Manoa Hawaiian Studies Program in 1978. In it, they say of Kahiolo:

The author G. W. Kahiolo, is not known otherwise to us. For other materials written by him, see Kukini ‘Aha’ilono, edited by Rubellite K. Johnson, Topgallant Publishing Col., Ltd., Honolulu, 1976: page 150, “Inoa o na Laau,” a list of names of plants, and pages 187–188, “He Mele no ka Nupepa Kuokoa,” a song in celebration of the start of the Hawaiian language newspaper, Ka Nupepa Kuokoa. We were unable to find any biographical material on him. However, because Ka Hae Hawaii was the official organ of the Department of Instruction (Mookini 9), Kahiolo may have been a Protestant educator as his tale is given a prominent place in the layout of the paper.]

(Hae Hawaii, 6/26/1861, p. 52)

HE MOOLELO NO KAMAPUAA.

Ka Hae Hawaii, Buke 6, Ano Hou—Helu 13, Aoao 52. Iune 26, 1861.