PuʻuWai Haokila:
The Making of A Legacy of Hawaiian Song & String, Volume One
The film Puʻuwai Haokila tells the story of how the award-winning album A Legacy of Hawaiian Song and String, Volume One became both a celebration and a reclamation of Hawaiʻi’s place in world music history. Produced by Kilin Reece, Raiatea Helm, and Dave Tucciarone, the album is the creative spark behind this landmark film, written and directed by PBS Hawaiʻi Producer Jon Jenks.
The album—and the film it inspired—emerged from groundbreaking research by the Kealakai Center for Pacific Strings (KCPS). Guided by KCPS President and Hawaiian language scholar Noah Haʻalilio Solomon, the insights of a community of cultural practitioners and the rich narratives preserved in nūpepa (Hawaiian language newspapers) were woven together with archival research led by KCPS founder and Executive Director Kilin Reece, in collaboration with the Library of Congress, C.F. Martin Guitar Company, Bishop Museum, and the Hawaiʻi State Archives. This rare convergence of scholarship, cultural practice, and performance laid the foundation for Puʻuwai Haokila, realized as a collaboration between KCPS and PBS Hawaiʻi.
Narrated by Raiatea Helm, the film reveals how Hawaiian musicians, through innovation and resilience, shaped the soundscape of the modern world. From Joseph Kekuku’s invention of the steel guitar in the 1880s to the global tours of Royal Hawaiian string ensembles, Hawaiian voices carried messages of aloha ʻāina, loyalty to the lāhui, and devotion to their queen—even as their kingdom faced profound political upheaval.
Through performance, archival imagery, and cultural expertise, Puʻuwai Haokila positions Hawaiian music not at the margins, but at the very heart of modern music history.
Kealakai Center for Pacific Strings is dedicated to:
RESEARCH
We research, document and gather living histories, historical recordings, stringed instruments and archival materials relevant to Hawaiʻi and the Pacific region’s pivotal role in the evolution of popular music and stringed instrument design.
RESTORATION
Working with a team of world renowned scholars, luthiers, conservators, musicians and audio engineers, we facilitate and promote the restoration and conservation of historic stringed instruments and their legacy of recorded music.
CELEBRATION
Through live concerts, exhibitions, publications, recordings and an online digital resource portal, we bring the legacy of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific to life for a global community of students, researchers, scholars and practitioners of luthiery and the musical arts.
Forest to Frets Luthiery Workshops
Invasive timbers become Hawaiian Steel Guitars and ʻukulele
Kealakai Center for Pacific Strings has partnered with Puʻuhonua O Waimānalo, and Aloha ʻĀina Agri-Cultural Restoration Project to repurpose invasive timbers currently being cleared to restore historical agricultural Loʻi Kalo. These timbers will be used to create Hawaiian Lap Steel Guitar kits that will be assembled through our Luthiery Outreach and Education programs designed to introduce at risk and underserved young people to the vocation and craft of luthiery.
THe Pacific String Museum
The world’s first online virtual museum solely dedicated to Hawaiʻi and the Pacific Region’s pivotal role in the evolution of the world’s most iconic stringed instrument designs, and their related musical styles. Through partnerships with industry leaders including the Kamaka ʻUkulele Company, the C.F. Martin Guitar Company, and the Fender Guitar Company, the Pacific String Museum seeks to support the narratives of practitioners and tradition bearers, centering the story of the world's most popular stringed instrument designs in the peoples and cultures from which they arise.
PŪMANAMANA MELE INDEX
He Hālau Kaʻapeha no ka Mele Hawaiʻi
The Pūmanamana Mele Index will create a public heritage resource for those interested in mele Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian music) by hosting a free, online index to guide users as they interact in a virtual library and digital archive of mele. The multi-dimensional catalog facilitates anything related to mele Hawaiʻi for all audiences, from leisurely enjoyment of the various subgenres of Hawaiʻi’s musical traditions to interdisciplinary academic research using this ethnomusicological corpus as a primary source
A Legacy of Hawaiian Song & String, Volume One
Produced by Raiatea Helm in partnership with the Kealakai Center for Pacific Strings.
Digital pacific music archives
The Digital Pacific Music Archives unites a global network of historical, cultural, and archival institutions to create a centralized research database of Hawaiʻi and Pacific music history. In partnership with TIND, a branch of the renowned research institution known as CERN, Kealakai Center for Pacific Strings has successfully built the world’s first globally accessible dynamic research and resource portal, drawing together manuscripts, photographs, sheet music, published song books, Hawaiian and English language newspaper clippings, and historical audio recordings to chart the soundscape of Hawaiʻi and the Great Pacific.
World Culture in Context
Remotely connecting students with artists and cultures from across the globe
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CENTER FOR CULTURAL VIBRANCY
As educators have turned to new modes of remote learning in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, World Culture in Context utilizes these emerging virtual tools to create exciting opportunities for student cultural engagement and arts enrichment. World Culture in Context takes students on a virtual field trip, connecting them with renowned performing artists and community tradition-bearers from across the globe. Students will see participating artists perform in the places that have profoundly shaped their work and have the opportunity to engage with them in live dynamic conversations about creativity, belonging, and culture.
Kealakai Center for Pacific Strings is dedicated to the research, restoration, and celebration, of Pacific music and luthiery traditions. Through our online digital platforms and collaborative in person events and exhibitions, we present a globally accessible research and resource data base for students, scholars, and practitioners, of the musical arts uniting a global community through the strength of strings we share.
Kealakai Center for Pacific Strings is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, our work is made possible with your generous support!