Hauʻoli Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi
New Tool and Reflections on ʻŌlelo Noʻeau, Tūtū Pukui, and Digital Stewardship
He hoʻokupu kēia: ʻŌlelo Noʻeau dot com, a digital offering in the form of a simple search tool for this canon text, compiled by the scholar and kumu hula Mary Abigail Kawenaʻulaokalaniahiʻiakaikapoliopele Naleilehuaapele Wiggin Pukui.
You’ll find ʻŌlelo Noʻeau, poetical sayings, woven into all kinds of text in Hawai'ʻi. From mission statements to federal law, they help invoke ʻike kupuna (ancestral knowledge), orienting readers through a Hawaiian worldview. Sometimes cited as sacred or absolute, I like to think of them instead as alive with kaona (hidden meaning), whimsy, metaphors, and sometimes instructions.
Pukui began collecting these phrases as a young woman in her teens. The printed volume was released after her passing by Bishop Museum in 1983, in collaboration with a co-editor and accompanied by a blessing from her daughter. The first edition can still be found online. Since then, the book has gone through multiple reprints. Pukui was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) from UH and further honored with a minted quarter reading Nānā I Ke Kumu (Look to the Source), named after her foundational publication on Hawaiian knowledge and culture.
For years, I relied on Trussel’s concordance to go through the text. Itʻs been perfectly preserved in an iconic 90s web design aesthetic. Stephen Kepano Trussel, a linguist at UH, made significant contributions to Pacific linguistics, especially online resources. His site, EclectiCity (1996), includes examples of language tools he built. Some of his work overlaps with that of Joseph Keola Donaghy, who has been working on Hawaiian interfaces since 1992. While these tools remain invaluable, neither is optimized for mobile. The book spans 351 pages with nearly 3,000 entries. Trussel’s site, while rich, isn’t dynamic. And Bishop released an EPUB version in 2018: it does the job.
But ʻŌlelo Noʻeau Search offers a light redesign: improved search that highlights keywords, index tags for precise browsing, and transparent sources including link to the dictionary. You can copy and share with attribution, suggest edits, and return for a daily proverb pull. Early feedback from friends includes a desire to rebuild the index with new structure and expand entries with images and place-based context.
In the first week, the tool saw over 200 unique visitors (30-60 a day), and is averaging nearly 200 daily queries. What began as an experiment in usability has unraveled into a layered exploration of access, design justice, IP and royalties for this kind of knowledge, and the deeper question of who’s continuing the kind of labor Pukui took on: meticulous, generous documentation of Hawaiian culture. (maybe more on this later) In my mind, it’s kumu hula, practitioners, and Hawaiian scholars, yet so much of it is behind various gates of protection.
It’s also pulled me into a wormhole of meaning drift, thinking about the subtle nuance of slang, truisms, cliché, and memes. Some of these phrases have likely bent or bloomed over time, considering that by 1985, the number of native speakers younger than 18 years old across the islands was under 50. Not to mention AI translation, and its attempt to sometimes write Hawaiian proverbs, the subtle ways this changes perception of who can author them. Today, scholars like Dr. Kauwila Mahi are digging up old phrases from nūpepa, and giving them new life via social media, a new form of the tradition.
There’s a bit of momentum to grow the project and data set. I think there’s some editing to do, too. My linguist friends are asking for the various dictionaries on his site to be reimagined. With Pukui and Trussel’s work, there’s a lot of tools that could be created for our Pacific communities.
Still, with ʻōlelo noʻeau I move cautiously through the “otherworldly” glow often cast over these sayings. They don’t all hum with mysticism. Many are functional. Some give side-eye. Others are cheeky. Pukui, in my mind, was a generalist and system thinker, who expertly worked at tending her various records and living artifacts. Whatever digital space holds her text should have the same air. In reading more about paremiology, the study of proverbs nestled inside philology, folkloristics, and linguistics, I think of our makaʻāinana being up there with Greek or Chinese philosophers. Clearly, Pukui did, too.
To the lunar new year. 2026: year of the makaʻāinana.
Mostly, I’m thankful for this repository of culture, and for Pukui’s foresight to document these poetical sayings from around the pae ʻāina. They’re not deterministic tokens or world models; there are many souls embedded within. Read more about her life and work, and bookmark ʻŌlelo Noʻeau Search for future use!
When daily pull and weather forecast aligns! 🤯
Thank you. In time for her Learning Commons opening up this year.