Gov. Josh Green proclaims Sunday as Mary Kawena Pukui Day
COURTESY PHOTO
Mary Kawena Pukui, circa May 1958
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green has proclaimed this Sunday as Mary Kawena Pukui Day in honor of the late Hawaiian scholar and kumu hula.
Green signed the proclamation on Monday recognizing Pukui as a visionary and revered scholar who “dedicated her life to preserving and revitalizing the Hawaiian language during a time when it faced near extinction.”
Sunday would have been Pukui’s 130th birthday, and is the first day of a week-long series of events for the Merrie Monarch Festival celebrating hula in Hilo.
The proclamation noted that Pukui’s scholarly and cultural contributions continue today to be “foundational to the renormalization of ‘Olelo Hawaii and Hawaiian ways of living.”
She worked tirelessly at the Bishop Museum to document and safeguard Native Hawaiian knowledge, authoring more than 50 scholarly publications, and composing over 150 songs and chants.
She was recognized as a historian, translator, author, teacher, lecturer, composer, researcher, genealogist, hula expert, and lexicographer, according to the Mary Kawena Pukui Cultural Preservation Society.
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The U.S. Mint this year also featured Pukui on its Native American $1 coin, adorned with a hibiscus flower and kukui nut lei. Pukui’s name is inscribed, along with “Nana I Ke Kumu,” the title of a book series she helped to produce with the Queen Liliuokalani Children’s Center.
The phrase, which means “look to the source,” is evocative of Pukui’s life work and legacy, the U.S. Mint said, “as she was someone who was continually consulted for her expertise on various aspects of Hawaiian knowledge.”
Green urged people of Hawaii “to honor and celebrate Mary Kawena Pukui for her unparalleled contributions to the lahui, the State of Hawaii, and the world on her 130th birthday.”
