Events
Bishop Museum Celebrates Mary Kawena Pukui With Special Museum After Hours Event
Bishop Museum, in partnership with the Mary Kawena Pukui Cultural Preservation Society, presents Nānā i ke Kumu: Celebrating the Legacy of Mary Kawena Pukui on Friday, April 11 from 5-9 p.m.
In partnership with the Mary Kawena Pukui Cultural Preservation Society, Nānā i ke Kumu will be held on Friday, April 11 from 5-9 p.m. on Museum grounds.
Bishop Museum, the State of Hawai'i Museum of Natural and Cultural History, in partnership with the Mary Kawena Pukui Cultural Preservation Society, presents Nānā i ke Kumu: Celebrating the Legacy of Mary Kawena Pukui. The special Museum After Hours event will be held on Friday, April 11 from 5-9 p.m. on the Museum's 15-acre campus.
"Mary Kawena Pukui is a titan in Hawaiian cultural preservation and spent over 50 years documenting, translating, and compiling Hawaiian knowledge systems during a time when Hawaiian culture and traditions were being lost," said Taylour Chang, Bishop Museum director of public programs and community engagement. "Her body of work amounts to one of the most significant contributions to our understanding of Hawaiian culture today. We invite our community to join us in honoring our beloved Mrs. Pukui with an evening of tributes by ʻahahui Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian organizations) with mele, hula, and special presentations."
Scheduled programs on the Museum's Great Lawn include:
- 5:30 p.m.:
- Hoʻokupu (presentation of gifts and offerings) by invited Royal Societies, Civic Clubs, and Native Hawaiian Organizations
- 7 p.m.:
- Wehena (opening) Hula honoring Mary Kawena Pukui with Kumu Hula John Kahaʻi Topolinski
- "Reminiscences on Pukui's Life and Works" featuring guest speakers Cy Bridges, Naomi Losch, Sarah Keahi, Laʻakea Suganuma, and moderator Mandy Suganuma
- 8:30 p.m.:
- Panina (closing)
The evening also celebrates the 2025 release of Mary Kawena Pukui's $1 coin, as part of the United States Mint's Native American $1 Coin Program recognizing and honoring the important contributions made by Indian tribes and individual Native Americans.
Mary Kawena Pukui worked at Bishop Museum while recording and documenting the largest library of oral histories of her time. She produced and translated more than 50 seminal publications throughout her life and posthumously, including the "Hawaiian-English Dictionary," "'Ōlelo No'eau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings," and "Native Planters in Old Hawai'i: Their Life, Lore, and Environment."
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 (Native Hawaiian) identity and independence. The year 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 (ancestral insights and knowledge) for future generations.
Bishop Museum expresses its appreciation for community partner the Mary Kawena Pukui Cultural Preservation Society, and sponsor Hawaiian Airlines.
About Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, the State of Hawaiʻi Museum of Natural and Cultural History
Bishop Museum’s mission is to inspire our community and visitors through the exploration, celebration, and perpetuation of the extraordinary history, culture, and environment of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. The Museum was founded in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop in memory of his wife Bernice Pauahi Bishop, a royal descendant of King Kamehameha I. Today, the Museum thrives as an educational center for the community and is widely regarded as the world’s premier institution for Hawaiian and Pacific content.
Bishop Museum’s vast collections of more than 25 million objects and specimens represent nine disciplines and include more than 22 million biological specimens, over 2 million cultural objects, 115,000 historical publications, and 1 million photographs, films, works of art, audio recordings, and manuscripts. These collections tell the stories of the cultures and biodiversity of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific as well as the proud legacy of scholarly research spanning 130 years.
Bishop Museum proudly serves more than 200,000 visitors each year, including 20,000 children on school visits. Guests are encouraged to pre-plan their trip to #HawaiisMuseum with its free digital guide, available through Bloomberg Connects.
To learn more about the Museum’s research, collections, exhibits, and programs, visit BishopMuseum.org, follow @BishopMuseum on Facebook and Instagram, visit Bishop Museum’s YouTube channel, or call (808) 847-3511. Bishop Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Bishop Museum is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer, and welcomes applicants from the military, veterans, and those with disabilities. Learn about careers at Bishop Museum at BishopMuseum.org/Careers and on its LinkedIn page.
Bishop Museum Press is Hawaiʻi’s oldest book publisher and one of the first scholarly publishers in the Western Hemisphere, and has published over 1,200 titles and distributed over 1 million books in 72 countries worldwide. Bishop Museum hosts a restaurant and gift shop on campus, Tūtū’s Place by Highway Inn and Shop Pacifica by Nā Mea Hawaiʻi.