December 19, 2006, marks the 175th birthday of Bernice Pauahi Bishop and the 119th celebration of the founding of her Kamehameha Schools. At all three campuses and at Mauna ‘Ala, chants will be chanted, songs will be sung, prayers will be prayed, pledges will be renewed, roses will be placed, and lei will be offered. All with humility and love. All to the woman of many names and titles: Pauahiokalani, Pauahilaninui, Kawahinehelelāokaiona, Kauaiokalani, Ke Ali‘i, Princess, Queen of Our Hearts.

Mary Kawena Pukui observed in the early 1970s that Pauahi’s legacy was oddly deficient, nele, in one respect: nele i ka mele hou ‘ole.  Lacking in new compositions. Up to that point in the 20th century, few -- if any -- mele had been written in Pauahi’s honor; all of her name chants had been composed in the preceding century. What should have been a thriving, on-going tradition of song writing had run dry, and the children and grandchildren of Pukui’s day had, therefore, been deprived of a subtle but oh-so-important connection to their Princess. 

Because Kawena Pukui was never one to namunamu wale, she put a mele where her mouth was. In 1974, she composed the name chant "He Inoa no Pauahi," and she asked her daughter Patience Namaka Bacon to teach it as a standing, ipu-accompanied hula at a conference held that September at Kamehameha Kapālama. A modified version of this mele hula has, for many years now, been part of Kumu Māhealani Chang’s fourth grade curriculum at KS Kapālama, and the members of the school’s hula club Nā Wāhine Hele Lā o Kaiona will perform the original version at this year’s Founder’s Day celebration at Kekūhaupi‘o.

Pukui’s elegant composition reminds us of the beauty of basics: of great-grandfather, mother, father, and cherished daughter; of the gift of education; and of the unforgettable love that carries, in our extended Kamehameha family, from generation to generation to generation.

He Inoa no Pauahi

Pukui’s mele rises out of the decades of nele like the first ōpū ‘a‘ali‘i on a desolate stretch of Ka‘ū Desert trail. Before: dust and cinders. After: oases of ‘ōhelo and pūkiawe, clusters of ‘ōhi‘a and māmane, Kīhei de Silva and Tony Conjugacion’s "Ha‘a Hula Le‘a ka Ua," Randie Fong and Suzanne Ka‘upu’s "Pauahi Nona ka Lei," de Silva and Moe Keale’s "Maika‘i Kaua‘i Awaiāulu ke Aloha," de Silva and Manu Boyd’s "Aloha Hōnaunau," and -- most recently -- de Silva and Aaron Sala’s "Ehuehu mai nei ‘o Mānoa." There is a definite change underfoot; new growth after miles of absence. 

Ka‘iwakīloumoku, launched 30 years after Kawena Pukui’s seminal composition, has come to play a significant role in this resurgence of mele inoa for Pauahi. To date, we have published six new mele for the Princess (one of them co-authored by Kuhi Suganuma, the great-granddaughter of Tūtū Kawena) and offered an essay that sheds new light on one of her oldest and most taken-for-granted songs. We’ve compiled these works here for you, e ka mea heluhelu aloha nui ‘ia, in celebration of Pauahi’s birthday and of what we hope will be a rejuvenated, on-going tradition of mele composed in her honor.