|
|
|
Mahalo  Nui e
Aunty Mary Kawena Pukui is the spiritual inspiration of The Hula Pages. >>Click here Aunty Kawena's portrait and an article of a day in her honor. With dedicated effort, she and Samuel H. Elbert compiled the definitive and authoritative work on the Hawaiian language, the HAWAIIAN DICTIONARY. Their significant achievement was vitally important for the successful revival of ka `ôlelo Hawai`i (the Hawaiian language). Aunty Kawena's was a true labor of The Aloha Spirit. Never a wealthy woman in the material sense, she was incredibly waiwai (rich and bountiful) in Hawaiian knowledge and life experiences. She did not hoard any of what she knew. She shared with an open heart filled with Aloha. She was, and still is, respected, revered, and beloved by her pupils and her people.Aunty Kawena loved the hula; herself, a kumu hula, who had studied for years under Julia Keahi Luahine, a foremost kumu hula of her day and one of the last court dancers of King Kalâkaua and Queen Lili`uokalani.Aunty Kawena was a tremendously sharing person. She must be delighted with this medium of communication and education, the Internet. Not only does the Internet allow unlimited exposure of her work, it furthers the fulfillment of her life's mission which was: the appreciation, preservation and perpetuation of the Hawaiian language and culture.
Mahalo â nui e `Anakê Kawena. Thank you very much, Aunty Kawena. |
|
|
