Eddie and Myrna Kamae’s lifelong work of preserving Hawaiian music, stories, and wisdom continues through the Eddie & Myrna Kamae Collection at UH West Oʻahu.
By Myrna Kamae
My husband, Eddie Kamae, understood the importance of preserving the wisdom of the kūpuna. Together, it was our hope to inspire the youth to learn Hawaiian ways of knowing through music and the teachings of the elders.
Three of Eddie’s teachers, Mary Kawena Pukui, Pilahi Paki, and Sam Liʻa Kalāinina, guided him deeply. Collectively, they instilled in us a powerful message: “You must do it for the children, for it will live forever.”
At a Living Treasures luncheon in the early 1980s, Pilahi Paki asked Eddie about his long work on Sam Liʻa’s life story and songs. Eddie replied, “I am still working on it.” Pilahi turned to him and urged, “Do it now, for soon there will be no more.”
The very next day, Eddie began filming Liʻa: The Legacy of a Hawaiian Man. That was the beginning of 10 award-winning documentaries, numerous albums, and a legacy that continues to resonate with people today through new projects.
Our 10 films: Liʻa, Listen to the Forest, Slack Key, Words Earth Aloha, Luther Makekau, Hawaiian Voices, History of Sons of Hawaiʻi, Keepers of the Flame, Lahaina Waves of Change, Those Who Came Before, along with most of the raw footage and music, have been digitized, cataloged, and are available for free at UH West Oʻahu (UHWO)’s ʻUluʻulu, Hawaiʻi’s Moving Image Archive.
Soon, UHWO’s Campbell Library will house and digitize the Eddie & Myrna Kamae Collection of print and photographic materials, allowing students, teachers, and the public to access it.
Today, a new chapter begins. At the end of December, the Hawaiian Legacy Foundation that Eddie and I founded in 1986 will close. Our mission has been to document, preserve, and perpetuate Hawaiʻi’s cultural heritage through music, film and video, educational programs, community outreach, and archival work.
Our focus will shift fully to supporting the Eddie & Myrna Kamae Collection at UHWO. Thanks to the strong leadership of Chancellor Maenette Benham, the UH Foundation Eddie & Myrna Kamae Endowment has been established. We are raising money to create student internships, fellowships, and faculty grants to ensure the Kamae archive is utilized by students, faculty, and the community.
We have already started this work. Faculty projects have brought Eddie’s music into new spaces: UHWO’s band, The Nāulu Winds, which includes students and community musicians, arranged four songs from the songbook for a 100-piece band, making Hawaiian music newly available for band students statewide. This kind of work opens doors for students.
We have also had two UHWO undergraduate “E Hoʻomau” student interns. They worked with me (our dedicated archivist) and the librarians and archivists at UHWO to process and digitize the collection.
Recently, their help has enabled us to establish a stronger social media presence, where we share short videos and stories from our archive. We reached nearly five million people worldwide this year. Soon, all 10 of our documentaries, shown each year on PBS Hawaiʻi will also be available to stream for free on the Hawaiian Legacy Foundation’s YouTube Channel.
Eddie would have loved this project, which brings Hawaiian music and values to more people in a new way.
This work would not have been possible without all the support and aloha from so many. Our friends, believers in this work, and Eddie Kamae & Sons of Hawaiʻi fans have contributed so much over the years.
The Alakaʻina Foundation, committed to supporting Hawaiʻi’s youth, has enabled us to digitize, catalog, and make accessible the Kamae archive. The Abigail Kawānanakoa Foundation has made it possible for us to translate the Eddie Kamae Songbook: A Musical Journey into the Hawaiian language. The English version, available since 2022, features 34 songs important to Eddie’s life and musical journey. The songbook aims to inspire families, students, and practitioners to connect with Hawaiian knowledge through music – and to encourage others to gather and share their own stories.
As I reflect on the closing of the foundation and a new beginning, I think about the parting wisdom that Kawena Pukui would always speak to Eddie every time he left her side: “E Hoʻomau, Eddie. Hoʻomau.” Continue on.
That is our mission now: To continue on. With your support, the Hawaiian legacy will remain strong, alive, and forever inspiring. E Hoʻomau.
To learn more or to kōkua, please visit: https://www.uhfoundation.org/give/giving-opportunity/hoomau-children or email myrnakamae@gmail.com.
