Mary Abigail Kawenaʻulaokalaniahiʻiakaikapoliopele Naleilehuaapele[1] Wiggin Pukui[2][3][4] (20 April 1895 – 21 May 1986), known as Kawena,[5] was a Hawaiian scholar, author, composer, hula expert, and educator.

Pukui was born on April 20, 1895, in her grandmother's home, named Hale Ola, in Haniumalu, Kaʻu, on Hawaiʻi Island, to Henry Nathaniel Wiggin (originally from Salem, Massachusetts, of a distinguished shipping family descended from Massachusetts Bay Colony governor Simon Bradstreet and his wife, the poet Anne Bradstreet)[6] and Mary Paʻahana Kanakaʻole, descendant of a long line of kahuna (priests) going back centuries.

Pukui was fluent in the Hawaiian language, and from the age of fifteen collected and translated folk tales, proverbs and sayings.

The two-volume set Nānā i ke Kumu, Look to the Source, is a valuable resource on Hawaiian customs and traditions.

[8] In addition to her published works, Pukui's knowledge was also preserved in her notes, oral histories, hundreds of audiotape recordings from the 1950s and 1960s, and a few film clips, all collected in the Bishop Museum.