Mary Kawena Pukui on the Perpetuation of the Hawaiian Language and Hula.
Cover Image: Masthead of Ka Hoku o Hawaii, published on September 13, 1939.
Last Friday was the final installment of the 2025 Nānā I Ke Kumu series honoring the legacy of Mary Kawena Pukui, featuring the debut of our new Hawaiian Hall Treasure Case installation, Mary Kawena Pukui: Knowledge Is Life, highlighting the enduring legacy of Mrs. Pukui and her immeasurable contributions to Hawaiʻi and the world. It was an evening filled with loving tributes of moʻolelo, mele, and hula.
Image: Portrait of Mary Kawena Pukui with a hibiscus in her hair; Hawaiʻi. Bishop Museum Archives, SP 121744.
Image sharing on social media is welcome. For all other uses please contact Archives@BishopMuseum.org
Image: Portrait of Rev. Henry Pratt Judd from “Hauoli Karisimaka,” Ka Hoku o Hawaii, December 20, 1939, p. 1.
Image: “HOI MAI HE AU KOOLAU AKU IA.” Ko Hawaii Pae Aina, August 26, 1882, p. 3.
A Letter Written to Rev. Henry P. Judd
Being that we were asked by the one who wrote the letter below to Rev. Henry P. Judd, with the belief that this would be something good to print in the Hoku o Hawaii so that perhaps Hawaiians will see what was done by Judd for the benefit of the Hawaiian people as well as for the continuing vigor of our mother tongue; not just for us, the Hawaiians of this progressing age, but for the benefit of our descendants.
Below is that letter and we publish it as it was written.
September 4, 1939
Reverend Henry P. Judd
Honolulu
Aloha ‘oe a nui:
I am in possession of your letter of the past 2nd.
I thank you for your prayers for the mother tongue that the Pioneers created, and taught to the chiefs and the commoners in the time of the Kamehamehas, and that became a language that is beloved by the natives of this land. I have frequently heard as if the Hawaiian language will be lost just like the extinction of Hawaiʻi’s own people, that is how the Hawaiian language will vanish in the future. Your taking on this task of teaching the mother tongue and correcting in books this great subject matter is indeed something to cause doubt in the words of the contemptuous ones.
There is no appropriate person in these islands who would be able to establish this endeavor as you patiently have; and I hope you will come across but tasks which will move you forward to triumph.
What you say is true about the lacking of Parker’s publication of 1922. For when I take a glance, the words “Kaalo, huwahuwa, pue (feather lei for) huleilua (this word pertains to the billows of the ocean) kuha’u, makaewaewa, hooheno, mapuana” and there are many more words that were overlooked by Parker; to my understanding, the Hawaiian words that people are accustomed to using in conversation have not been exhausted, in his book.
I too have feelings of gratitude for the language of the ancestors just as you do, and as I wrote to Harry Baldwin desiring support for the Hoku: “Some newspapers in the Hawaiian language have gone away in nooks, and this newspaper printed in Hilo and founded by Stephen Desha, his beloved in the final years of his life; little of its spring of life remains to continue, but it will fall if the friends of Hawaiʻi, the greatest nation, does not help. Both you and I are vexed to see in print that it is vanishing, just as it had been foretold before, the language of the Pioneers of the year 1820 that helped to establish in Hawaiʻi, the language of those god-fearing ones, the men and the women that were introduced to the uplifting and the educating of the people of these islands” and I am saying once more, “let your efforts be guided by the blessed lessons from above.”
Pertaining to Kiwini [Stephen L. Desha Sr.], at his funeral, I cannot explain the reason for the clapping of the thunder and the flashing of the lighting when Kamau and I went up to the pulpit, and when Kamau opened the Bible to read the verse, and when it boomed again when the hearse left Haili Church, reverberating on the walls of heaven like guns for the heavenly chariot; it was a clear day, there was no rain, the sun was shining, and chicken skin crawled over me, and if the appropriate words for me to speak, as if the old time Hawaiians that I had met with at the evening of that very day, had said “the heavens have greeted Kiwini” although might you have some explanation now about this event aside from the condition of the air, or some clarification perhaps of the scientists? It is certain that those resounding voices of the heavenly cannons was not for the President of the United States, he had already passed the day before. My conscience had faith and think the ancient Hawaiians were correct, and perhaps this is a kind of superstition, although here we are living in a superstitious world.
With my aloha in abundance.
Yours truly.
H. L. Holstein
Image: “Leka i Kakau ia mai,” Ka Hoku O Hawaii, September 27, 1939, p.1.
Letters Written in
Sept. 18, 1939
To the Newspaper Hoku o Hawaii: –
The two of us are grateful to have read Mr. Holstein’s letter to Rev. Henry P. Judd. We all join in that sentiment of gratitude for the path that he patiently seeks so that our mother tongue survives.
Here is our small correction, for that part, “the mother tongue that the Pioneers created and taught to the chiefs and commoners.” We have a language from time immemorial up to the arrival of our church fathers from America; they patiently sought the means so that our language could be written and read. They worked and made it resemble their alphabet and taught our ancestors. According to the white-skinned ones, “Reduced the language to writing.” Because of their efforts, much remains of the stories, the genealogies, the songs, and so forth, here with us. This is a treasure that we all are greatly joyous for.
That too is how this descendant of the church fathers is seeking, and studying a way to preserve our language so that it will not be completely disappear from our descendants.
It is true that there are a great many terms not published in Parker’s dictionary. There are thousands that are filed here at this Museum.
With gratitude,
Mary Kawena Pukui
E. Lahilahi Webb
Image: Mary Kawena Pukui taking notes from the newspaper Ka Na’i Aupuni at Bishop Museum; Honolulu, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. Photo by Mori Yamada, ca. October 1957. Bishop Museum Archives, SP 28859.
Image sharing on social media is welcome. For all other uses please contact Archives@BishopMuseum.org
Image: Full portrait of Lahilahi Webb; Hawaiʻi. Photo by J. J. Williams. Bishop Museum Archives, SP 126929.
Image sharing on social media is welcome. For all other uses please contact Archives@BishopMuseum.org
Image: “Hunahuna Mea Hou o Honolulu,” Ka Hoku o Hawaii, October 22, 1941, p.3.
Bits of News of Honolulu
(Written by Mrs. Hattie L. Reinhardt.)
Hemenway Hall, University of Hawaiʻi
One day while I was in Honolulu, my elder sister Mrs. Mary Akahiakuleana Saffery invited me to go along with my elder sister Mrs. Charles Maschke to dine with her and a great number of dear friends who were invited that day, at Hemenway Hall. It is a very beautiful hall, with all kinds of splendor for you and others who sit in repose. You look to the uplands of Mānoa and see ginger blossoms perfuming the air of that place. In a large room stands this hall; there is a long table and two other tables, that were adorned with ti and ti bundles that were filled with fruit clusters of the date palm tree, and some large colorful leaves. Splendid indeed was the decorating of these tables that were also laden with delicious Hawaiian foods. There were plenty of pineapples that were carved and standing. We ate our fill of the delicious foods that my elder sister and her friends had prepared. When we were all almost finished eating, Mrs. Pukui had come to visit before this audience and explained clearly to us the true nature of Hawaiian hula of the old times that were danced in front of the aliʻi. While we were eating, a women’s glee club sang to us the old Hawaiian songs of Hawaiʻi. How amused indeed were our ears in listening. When Mrs. Pukui finished talking, Malulani Kahea entered and blew the conch shell, and sounded the drums for a few minutes, and at that time entered Mrs. Montgomery and she sat down on the floor. She beat a small drum, and Josephine Manase was seen joining in and dancing the hula of Kapiʻolani, Kalākaua, and some other chiefs. Splendid indeed is the Hawaiian hula of the old days, they are not like those of this new age. Mrs. Pukui was praised for her reawakening the true hula of the old times. May that good work continue.
Image: Mary Kawena Pukui performing “Mūkīkī Wai,” ca. 1930; Hawaiʻi. Still photo by Tiki George, from a film by Vivienne Huapala Mader. Bishop Museum Archives, SCP 103645.
Image sharing on social media is welcome. For all other uses please contact Archives@BishopMuseum.org
This post is part of He Aupuni Palapala: Preserving and Digitizing the Hawaiian Language Newspapers, a partnership between Bishop Museum and Awaiaulu with assistance from Kamehameha Schools. Mahalo nui loa to Hawaii Tourism Authority for their support. Learn more about this project here.
