On that Saturday morning of April 20, 1895, Kawena arrived with a wail

 #AlohaLāHānau.  #HappyBirthday.  

On that Saturday morning of April 20, 1895, Kawena arrived with a wail

. She was born in her grandmother’s house, called Hale-ola or House of Life on Haniumalu Hill in the village of Nāʻālehu in the district of Kaʻū on the Island of Hawaiʻi.

Named Mary Abigail Kawena‘ulaokalanioHi’iakaikapolioPelekawahine‘aihonua.  She was the daughter of Henry Nathaniel Wiggin of Salem, Massachusetts. The Wiggin family were ship owners and also had large tracks of timberland in Tennessee.

Her mother, Ke-liʻi-paʻahana Kanakaʻole, a pure Hawaiian, whose ancestral roots are found in the line of priests of the Kaʻū district.  They were the priests of Pele and kahuna of medicine, canoe building and fishing.  

In the tradition of hānai, Mary Kawena Pukui, was given to her grandmother to be hers to rear. With her grandmother, Kawena learned chants and legends of the district, memorized the prayers that were offered while gathering those plants used in healing.  The treasures to be handed down from generation to generation were the oral histories, chants and legends relating to both family and district.  Kawena was that heir, receiving from her grandmother, mother and other family members those things that became such an important part of her life.  

With her keen sense of coloring and symbolism in these chants and legends and the hundreds she translated from old Hawaiian newspaper and other sources during her productive years, she was able with her command of the English language to preserve the poetry and Hawaiian flavor in the English translations for use today and for generations of the future.

She always felt that much of the credit for the success she realized in her work was due to her American born father who had an appreciation for things Hawaiian and a love for her grandmother.  Fluent in the Hawaiian language, he always spoke to Kawena in proper English and that did much to prepare her for the years ahead as a writer and translator.

At the age of fifteen, Kawena was encouraged by Laura Green to record what she learned from her grandmother and the other elders she grew up with. Having a natural curiosity, a retentive memory and a deep interest in any and everything Hawaiian, she began reading every available thing written in Hawaiian, including newspapers.  As new words, not in existing dictionaries would crop up, she began a card file of Hawaiian words, a list that in time took on the magnitude of a dictionary.

    She was determined to miss nothing if possible, pure, borrowed, vulgarity, everything!  What she wanted to do was bring the earlier Hawaiian writer and historians to the fore, to receive the recognition that they deserved.  Kawena spoke often of the great Hawaiians of the past, warriors, poets, historians, religious leaders, but so little was known of them.  She wanted to be a "bridge" between yesterday and today, with no claim to their writings.  

 

Of all her work towards the preservation of Hawaiian culture she felt that her contribution to the dictionary would remain the most important for the young people of the future though she often said, "One may learn all the grammar possible today and have a very large vocabulary of Hawaiian words at his command, but if he fails to understand words sweetly spoken and sourly meant, he still had more to learn."

    After being assigned to work entirely on the dictionary, Kawena was able to devote full time on that work.  Even at home she would become irritated over the time taken up by visitors and telephone calls, seeing precious minutes slip by which she would rather have devoted to the dictionary.  An opportunity opened up for her to move to a small guest cottage, "Viotaha" at Punaluʻu, Oʻahu.  It was the beach property belonging to her good friend and work colleague, Dr. Edward Handy.  She spent the better part of five years in the peace and tranquility of the country where she was able to bring her portion of the project to completion.

    Kawena often said, "The Hawaiian can be understood only through the ancient poetry which was his greatest art and his gift for poetic metaphor which still marks his modern expressions."            

Analyzing some thoughts regarding her work and learning experiences, she wrote:

    "According to Dr. Spoehr, I am the first and only Hawaiian so far to hold a Museum title.  I still marvel at it, more so when I sit among the workers and hear of the subjects they majored in. Every single one had majored in something or other.  My "college" was the things I heard and saw as a child, my language, that of my ancestors.  Degrees, I have none, (Before the end of her career, Kawena had received two Honorary doctorates in literature from two separate Universities) yet no Hawaiian before me had ever filled the number of folders of translated and written material as I have.  No project had been as painstaking and as nerve wracking as the dictionary.  Nothing ever required the intense concentration and tedious going over and over.  Never had I received more verbal and written abuse from my own people than when working on it.  It has been and still is a steep, hard, up-hill climb.  Boring? No, never!  

Discouragements were many but they were overcome with patience and sometimes a flash of temper! If when the dictionary is printed, it becomes a help to educators, students, lawyers, hula teachers, all and sundry, then all the labor, effort, and patience is worth it.  There are more words, including those coined by the Catholics, Mormons and Protestants.  The Catholics and Mormons were ignored completely before this.  No personal prejudices, such as hula as a lascivious dance.  A word is defined simply and that is that.    By the grace of God, I sit among the learned to share what I have and to learn from them.  Maybe in this way I have been ‘colleged’.”

 

Kawena produced more than 52 published titles in Hawaiian culture and received many awards for her work, from the State of Hawaii, City of Honolulu and many community groups, a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in literature and two honorary doctorates.  Of her many accolades and honors  her efforts have produced, she would probably be most proud that in this day she has great -moʻopuna who have honored her life’s work in helping to safe keep the Hawaiian language and their children, her own great-great-moʻopuna, are part of a new generation where ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi is their first language.    

 

E ola mau ka inoa ʻo Mary Kawena Pukui!