Birthday of Mary Abigail Kawenaʻulaokalaniahiʻiakaikapoliopele Naleilehuaapele Wiggin Pukui

Hawaiian scholar, author, composer, hula expert, and educator born. Known for her meticulous and dedicated work for the preservation of ʻŌlelo Hawai'i, she is particularly remembered for her 1957 Hawaiian Language Dictionary. Raising in the traditional way by her grandmother, Naliʻipoʻaimoku, Pukui spoke ʻŌlelo Hawai'i fluently and began translating while still in her teens. In public school she was hit on the head for speaking her language and punished by only being given bread and water for lunch. She published more than 50 scholarly works and translated many important Hawaiian stories while working for the Bishop Museum for a long career. Her monumental dictionary was a life's work and her linguistic coauthor wrote "She is the expert in Hawaiian. This is her dictionary, a monument to her. My task has been the humble one of technician." Written during a time when the linguicidal law banning Hawaiian language instruction in schools was still enacted, her dictionary helped bridge the divide between the traditional generations and the generations coming of age from the Red Power era to now.