Nānā i ke Kumu: Celebrating the Legacy of Mary Kawena Pukui

Museum After Hours
Nānā i ke Kumu: Celebrating the Legacy of Mary Kawena Pukui
Friday, April 11, 2025
5 – 9 pm

Location: Great Lawn | Gallery Lawns | Hawaiian Hall Complex

$10 pre-sale, $15 at the door for General Admission.
Free for Bishop Museum Members

In partnership with the Mary Kawena Pukui Cultural Preservation Society, Bishop Museum invites you to celebrate the life, work and legacy of our hero of cultural preservation, Mary Kawena Pukui. Join us for an evening of tributes by ʻahahui Hawaiʻi, mele, hula and more, all in honor of our beloved Mrs. Pukui.

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, thus producing a body of work that amounts to one of the most significant contributions to our understanding of Hawaiian culture today. Pukui worked at Bishop Museum while recording and documenting the largest library of oral histories of her time, and produced and translated seminal publications like the Hawaiian-English Dictionary, ‘Ōlelo No‘eau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings, Nānā i ke Kumu, Look to the Source, Place Names of Hawai‘i, Native Planters in Old Hawai‘i: Their Life, Lore, and Environment, Ruling Chiefs, Hawaiian Poetry and Music, The Hula, The Echo of our Song: Chants & Poems of the Hawaiian People, and over 50 publications throughout her life and posthumously.

Pukui’s unparalleled contributions to cultural revitalization encompass every facet of Hawaiian knowledge, practice, and existence empowering the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s and provided the foundation for the continuing efforts to advance Kanaka identity and independence. 2025 marks the launch of Bishop Museum’s ongoing Nānā i ke Kumu program series which seeks to engage practitioners, scholars and students in the continuance of her tireless efforts to perpetuate ʻike kupuna for future generations.

Great Lawn Stage Program

• 5:30 pm Hoʻokupu Offerings by invited Royal Societies, Civic Clubs and Native Hawaiian Organizations
• 7:00 pm Reminiscences on Pukui’s Life and Works featuring guest speakers Cy Bridges, Naomi Losch, Sarah Keahi, Laʻakea Suganuma, and moderator Mandy Suganuma
  Hula honoring Mary Kawena Pukui with Loea Hula John Kahaʻi Topolinski & Ka Pā Hula Hawaiʻi
• 8:30pm Panina

Spotlight Programs

Ke Ao Nani
Hawaiian Hall Tours
Hawaiian Hall Complex
Times 6:00 pm & 8:00 pm
Immerse yourself in the beauty and history of Hawaiian Hall on a guided tour, highlighting tradition and change in Hawaiʻi through signature gallery spaces and displays, with a special focus of the ʻike passed down from Mrs. Pukui during her time at Bishop Museum. Meet at the staircase in Hawaiian Hall’s front entry tower.

Pō Laʻilaʻi
The Hawaiian Sky Tonight
J. Watumull Planetarium
6:00 pm, 6:45 pm, 7:30 pm and 8:15 pm
Learn what stars, constellations, planets, and more can be seen in the skies above Hawaiʻi the night of the show. The month’s presentation place special emphasis on ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi names of stars, constellations and star lines recorded by Mrs. Pukui with musical selections composed by Mrs. Pukui. Each show is 25 minutes. Tickets required; reserve at Shop Pacifica upon check in. Free for members and children under 4, $3 per person general admission. Limited seating.

ʻOhana Offerings

Food and Beverage on the Lawn
5:00 pm – 9:00 pm

E Kōnane Pū Kākou (Gallery Lawns)
5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Much more than just a game, kōnane hones strategic and analytical skills applicable in times of both war and peace. Join kōnane enthusiasts to challenge your established strategies or learn the rules and techniques for the first time. Open to all levels of experience. Fun for the whole ʻohana!

Lauhala Weaving w/ Keoua Nelsen (Gallery Lawns)
5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Weave the dried leaves of the Pūhala (Pandanus) into a stunning bracelet (one per attendee). Courtesy of Helumoa, Royal Hawaiian Center.

Lei Making w/ Maxeen Shea (Gallery Lawns)
5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Use the kui (sewing) style to string an assortment of blossoms into a beautiful lei (one per attendee). Courtesy of Helumoa, Royal Hawaiian Center.

ʻUkulele Lesson w/ Puʻuhonua Jumawan (Gallery Lawns)
5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Learn basic chords and sing a song as you strum Hawaiʻi’s best-known string instrument, introduced to the islands in the 1870s from Portugal. ʻUkulele provided. Courtesy of Helumoa, Royal Hawaiian Center.

Additionally, this evening celebrates the 2025 release of Mary Kawena Pukui $1 coin, as part of the US Mint’s Native American $1 Coin Program. Established to honor and recognize the important contributions made by Indian tribes and individual Native Americans. Mary Kawena Pukui wearing a hibiscus flower, a kukui nut lei, and a muʻumuʻu adorned with an aloha print.

The Mary Kawena Pukui Cultural Preservation Society’s purpose is to be a unique and invaluable educational resource based on the life’s work of Mary Kawena Pukui, who dedicated her life to the preservation of the Hawaiian culture and language, authoring over 50 scholarly publications, composing over 150 songs and chants. Pukui was widely recognized as a historian, translator, author, teacher, lecturer, composer, researcher, genealogist, hula expert. lexicographer and more.

Mahalo To Our Sponsor!