Ola ka inoa o nā kūpuna, e hoʻomau ʻia i ke kahua hoʻomanaʻo

Museum After Hours
Ola ka inoa o nā kūpuna, e hoʻomau ʻia i ke kahua hoʻomanaʻo
Friday, December 19, 2025
5 – 9 p.m.
Location: Gallery Lawns | Hawaiian Hall Complex

$10 pre-sale, $15 at the door for General Admission. Free for Bishop Museum Members.

In partnership with the Mary Kawena Pukui Cultural Preservation Society, Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum invites you to celebrate the life, work and legacy of our hero of cultural preservation, Mary Kawena Pukui. We culminate our 2025 Nānā i ke Kumu Series by honoring Mrs. Pukui on the anniversary of the birth of our beloved namesake, Ke Aliʻi Bernice Pauahi Bishop. This special Museum After Hours features 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 the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. Join us for an evening of loving tributes through moʻolelo, mele, hula, and much more.

Mary Kawena Pukui: Knowledge Is Life
Treasure Case | Wao Lani, Hawaiian Hall Third Floor | Hawaiian Hall Complex
5 – 9 p.m.

Mary Kawena Pukui: Knowledge Is Life celebrates the work and enduring legacy of Mary Kawena Pukui, honoring her many teachers and recognizing Pukui as the leading source of Hawaiian language and cultural study today. This installment acknowledges Pukui’s ties to her own sources of knowledge, and how these teachings prepared her for her role as a kumu hula, composer, writer, researcher, and expert English-Hawaiian translator.

On exhibit will be Pukui’s ipu heke, donated to Bishop Museum by her hānai daughter, Patience Namaka Bacon, as well as a magnetic tape recorder gifted to the Museum in 1950 and used by Pukui to document the voices of kūpuna across the Islands. The case also presents a collection of resources Pukui bestowed upon Hawaiʻi, featuring many of the publications that she authored, coauthored, and collaborated on. This will include her first editions of the Hawaiian Dictionary, co-written by Samuel H. Elbert, and ʻŌlelo Noʻeau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings.

Gallery Lawn Stage Schedule

5:15 p.m.
Wehena
Welcoming Remarks by Laʻakea Suganuma

5:30 p.m.
Hula Presentation honoring Mary Kawena Pukui
featuring Lei Hulu Hula Studio

6:30 p.m.
Reflections on the 2025 Nānā I Ke Kumu Series
a panel discussion featuring series organizers, led by Pelehonuamea Harman

7:00 p.m.
Mele and Moʻolelo in Honor of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop
featuring Kamehameha Schools Alumni Glee Club

7:30 p.m.
Aia ka naauaoio o ka lahui o kekahi aupuni a paa na moolelo o kona aina kulaiwi iaia
Honored guest presenters, Awaiaulu, will weave the monumental contributions of Ke Aliʻi Pauahi and Mrs. Pukui, two paragons of ʻike kupuna, into their reflections on the revitalization of ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi. Heuaʻolu Sai Dudoit will illuminate their moʻolelo with select mele illustrating Awaiaulu’s ongoing efforts.

8:30 p.m.
Panina
“Kuʻu Tūtū” featuring ka ʻOhana Pukui

Program Highlights

Ke Ao Nani
Hawaiian Hall Tours
Hawaiian Hall Complex
6:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.

Immerse yourself in the beauty and history of Hawaiian Hall on a guided tour, highlighting signature gallery spaces and displays, with a special focus on ʻōlelo noʻeau documented by Mrs. Pukui during her time at Bishop Museum. Meet at the staircase in Hawaiian Hall’s front entry tower.

Pō Laʻilaʻi
The Hawaiian Sky Tonight
J. Watumull Planetarium
6 p.m., 6:45 p.m., 7:30 p.m. & 8:15 p.m.
Learn what stars, constellations, planets, and more can be seen in the skies above Hawaiʻi the night of the show. The month’s presentation place special emphasis on ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi names of stars, constellations and star lines recorded by Mrs. Pukui with musical selections composed by Mrs. Pukui. Each show is 25 minutes. Tickets required; reserve at Shop Pacifica upon check in. Free for members and children under 4, $3 per person general admission. Limited seating.

Nā Akua Ākea: The Vast and Numerous Deities
presented by Oʻahu Pāʻieʻie II
5 – 9 p.m.
Featuring the work of nine haumāna practitioners and their kumu, Kumulāʻau and Haunani Sing of Ke Kumu Hawaiʻi. who have each woven a kiʻi. The kiʻi featured represents contemporary Hawaiian expressions of akua (images of deities), ʻaumakua (family guardians), kapua (shape shifters) and kūpuna (ancestral) images. Other ʻie items to be displayed are hīnaʻi iʻa (fish traps), peahi (fans) and more.

ʻOhana Offerings

Food and Beverage on the Lawn
5 – 9 pm

E Kōnane Pū Kākou! (Gallery Lawns)
5 – 8 pm
Much more than just a game, kōnane hones strategic and analytical skills applicable in times of both war and peace. Join kōnane enthusiasts to challenge your established strategies or learn the rules and techniques for the first time. Open to all levels of experience. Fun for the whole ʻohana!

Ola ka Inoa o nā kūpuna na Mary Kawena Pukui

Ola ka inoa o nā kūpuna
E hoʻomau ʻia i ke kahua hoʻomanaʻo
Kūkulu ʻia e Konia me Pākī
Ka Hale Hōʻikeʻike a Pīhopa

Ancestral names live on
Perpetuated at this commemorative foundation
Buildings named for Konia and Pākī
At the Bishop Museum

Awaiaulu is dedicated to developing resources and resource people that can bridge Hawaiian knowledge from the past to the present and the future. Historical resources are made accessible so as to build the knowledge base of both Hawaiian and English-speaking audiences, and young scholars are trained to understand and interpret those resources for modern audiences today and tomorrow.

The Mary Kawena Pukui Cultural Preservation Society’s purpose is to be a unique and invaluable educational resource based on the life’s work of Mary Kawena Pukui, who dedicated her life to the preservation of the Hawaiian culture and language, authoring over 50 scholarly publications, composing over 150 songs and chants. Pukui was widely recognized as a historian, translator, author, teacher, lecturer, composer, researcher, genealogist, hula expert. lexicographer and more.

This program is part of the 2025 Nānā I Ke Kumu Series | Honoring the Legacy of Mary Kawena Pukui, a collaborative effort between the Mary Kawena Pukui Cultural Preservation Society and Bishop Museum, celebrating the ways Pukui’s scholarship, mentorship, and cultural wisdom continue to nourish and guide the lāhui.

For information on the full series of events dedicated to Mrs. Pukui, please click this link:
2025 Nānā i ke Kumu Series | Honoring and Perpetuating the Legacy of Mary Kawena Pukui