Mary Kawena Pukui Performing Arts Festival Date Announced February 24, 2008 ; $3 admission; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Native storytellers from Hawai‘i, Alaska, and Massachusetts will gather on the Great Lawn at Bishop Museum to “talk story” and join in a celebration of native cultures through the ancient art of storytelling and dance. The 8 th annual Mary Kawena Pukui Performing Arts Festival will be held at Bishop Museum on Sunday, February 24, 2008 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $3 per person for Hawai‘i residents and military with ID. Members and children 3 and under are free. Regular admission for all others.
Among the participants in this year’s Mary Kawena Pukui Performing Arts Festival are performers from the Bishop Museum; the Peabody Essex Museum and New Bedford Whaling Museum of Massachusetts; the North Slope Borough in Barrow, Alaska, and the Alaska Heritage Center in Anchorage, Alaska; and known local storytellers from Hawai‘i.
The centerpiece of the festival is a collaborative piece entitled, “Keeping the Fire in Dark Moon Times.” Created in 2007 under the direction of Tau Dance Theatre of Honolulu, it is infused with the oral tradition, dance, and music of natives from Hawai‘i, Alaska , and Massachusetts . It honors ancestral stories and the diverse symbolism of the moon, its cycles, and the many meanings of harvest.
In the past, the storytellers have traveled to rural and Native Hawaiian charter schools on O‘ahu. This year, the plan is to take the storytellers to Hawai‘i Island as well. The group will also travel to the new National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. and New York to share the stories of Hawai‘i, Alaska, and New England.
Says education Project Manager, Noelle Kahanu, “What better way to learn about culture and its people that through their stories and songs? Thousands of Hawai‘i’s children have learned of the Raven and how he brought light to the Inupiat people, or stomped in time to a Wampanoag dance, or heard the rhythmic beat of Cape Verde drumming. It connects us all at a very fundamental level,”
At the Pukui Festival, there will be several stages featuring a variety of storytellers and programs for adults and children, hula hālau and music performances. Food and native craft booths will also be among the attractions of the event. Bishop Museum Press will also have large selection of books about Native Hawaiian topics available for sales during the event
The festival is held each year in honor of Mary Kawena Pukui, a revered Hawaiian scholar and linguist who knew the importance of storytelling to the host Hawaiian culture. Pukui published the first Native Hawaiian language dictionary and worked tirelessly to preserve and perpetuate Hawaiian traditions of hula and storytelling.
Pukui was born in 1895 to a Hawaiian mother and a Caucasian father who was from Salem , Massachusetts . Until she was 6, she lived with her maternal grandmother who taught her the Hawaiian language and numerous chants, dances, and legends. As she grew into young adulthood, Pukui collected Hawaiian lore and legends that eventually became the background for more than 50 books and 150 songs she would later write.
Pukui worked at Bishop Museum for more than 50 years helping to preserve chant texts, oral histories and ethnographic data collected in her research and fieldwork. According to her adopted daughter, Patience Namakauahoaokawena Wiggin Bacon, Pukui was meticulous when she retold and recorded stories.
The Mary Kawena Pukui Performing Arts Festival provides an opportunity to perpetuate the storytelling traditions and to introduce new generations of Hawai‘i’s children to this important cultural legacy.
The fetival is funded through a federally sponsored program, Education through Cultural and Historic Organizations (ECHO). ECHO is a major, federally-funded educational and cultural enrichment initiative, established by Congress as part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. ECHO brings to culturally diverse audiences innovative programs collaboratively produced by regional cultural entities. Alaska Native Heritage Center and North Slope Borough ECHO Project in Alaska , Bishop museum in Hawai‘i; and the New Bedford Whaling Museum and Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts .
For more information about the Mary Kawena Pukui Performing Arts Festival, or school outreach programs, call (808) 847-3511 or visit www.bishopmuseum.org.
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