Pualani Kanakaʻole Kanahele, often styled Dr

Pualani Kanakaʻole Kanahele was born September 14, 1937, in Keaukaha, Hawaiʻi, into a family whose commitment to hula, chant, language, and land knowledge shaped her life and work. Her mother, Edith Kanakaʻole, founded Hālau o Kekuhi in 1953 and established a family-centered lineage grounded in ʻai haʻa—a vigorous, bent-knee form of hula whose physical demand serves chant narrative rather than decorative display. When Edith died in 1979, Pualani and her younger sister Nālani assumed roles as kumu hula, inheriting both the artistic practice and the responsibilities attached to it.

Hālau o Kekuhi became known for teaching mele hula and mele oli that require language mastery, historical knowledge, vocal technique, and protocol. Kanahele's practice crosses categories that Western institutions often separate: dance, poetry, music, genealogy, environmental observation, ceremony, and education. Under her and Nālani's leadership, the hālau presented hula as a classical, physically rigorous form while resisting the dilution of its lineage. In 2007, Pualani transferred hālau leadership to her daughters Kekuhi Kealiʻikanakaʻoleohaililani and Huihui Kanahele-Mossman, making succession itself an intentional part of cultural continuity.

Kanahele worked as a Hawaiian studies educator and institutional leader within the University of Hawaiʻi system, bringing Indigenous methods of knowledge, land, and language into academic settings. Her scholarship and writing address Pele, Hiʻiaka, the Kumulipo, hula, and the reciprocal responsibilities connecting people and the living earth. In 1993, she and Nālani jointly received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts as recognized hula masters.

In 1995, Pualani created *Holo Mai Pele*, an opera-length hula drama that brought chant, dance, story, design, and family performance into a sustained theatrical architecture. The work was later documented for public television and in print, presenting the Pele narrative through Hawaiian forms rather than Western theatrical conventions. Her recordings and publications include *PELE*, *Holo Mai Pele*, *Ka Honua Ola*, and work on the *Kumulipo*. The *PELE* recording received Nā Hōkū Hanohano honors in 1999 for Hawaiian-language composition and performance. Universities and arts institutions have recognized Kanahele with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2005 and invited her as a cultural, environmental, and spiritual authority.