Mary Kawena Pukui

• Name — Mary Kawena Pukui • Birth Name — Mary Abigail Pukui • Born — 20 April 1895 • Birthplace — Kaʻū, Island of Hawaiʻi, Republic of Hawaii • Died — 21 May 1986 • Occupation — Scholar, dancer, composer, educator

Pukui was born on April 20, 1895, in her grandmother's home, named Hale Ola, in Haniumalu, Kaʻū, on Hawaiʻi Island, to Henry Nathaniel Wiggin (originally from Salem, Massachusetts, of a distinguished shipping family descended from Massachusetts Bay Colony governor Simon Bradstreet and his wife, the poet Anne Bradstreet) and Mary Paahana Kanakaole, descendant of a long line of kahuna (priests) going back centuries. Pukui's maternal grandmother, Naliipoaimoku, was a kahuna laau lapaau (medicinal expert) and kahuna pale keiki (midwife) and a hula dancer in Queen Emma's court. She had delivered the child, and asked Pukui's parents for the child to raise in the traditional way, and her request was granted. Kawena was born into the Fire Clan of Kaʻū. Kawena and her grandmother were inseparable, and the child was taught many things she needed to know. Upon the death of her grandmother, Kawena returned to live with her parents. Her mother continued her education in things Hawaiian and her father, who spoke Hawaiian fluently, spoke to her in English and taught her of his New England heritage. Pukui was educated in the Hawaiian Mission Academy, and taught Hawaiiana at Punahou School. Pukui was fluent in the Hawaiian language, and from the age of fifteen collected and translated folk tales, proverbs and sayings. She worked at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum from 1938 to 1961 as an ethnological assistant and translator. She also taught Hawaiian to several scholars and served as an informant for numerous anthropologists. She published more than 50 scholarly works. Pukui is the co-author of the definitive Hawaiian-English Dictionary (1957, revised 1986), Place Names of Hawaii (1974), and The Echo of Our Song (1974), a translation of old chants and songs. Her book, Ōlelo Noeau, contains nearly 3,000 examples of Hawaiian proverbs and poetical sayings, translated and annotated. The two-volume set Nānā i ke Kumu, Look to the Source, is a valuable resource on Hawaiian customs and traditions. In addition to her published works, Pukui's knowledge was also preserved in her notes, oral histories, hundreds of audiotape recordings from the 1950s and 1960s, and a few film clips, all collected in the Bishop Museum. She is often credited with making the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s possible. She was named a "Living Treasure of Hawaii" by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii in 1977. In 1995, she was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame. In March 2017, Hawaii Magazine ranked her among a list of the most influential women in Hawaiian history.