THE HAWAIIAN LEGACY FOUNDATION
The Hoʻokupu Project
Finishing The Work
I thought I was going to make one film. But along the way, I met so many people and learned so many stories that I had to keep on making more films.
—Eddie Kamae
Over the past three decades, Eddie and Myrna Kamae's Hawaiian Legacy Foundation produced ten award-winning documentaries. Each one preserves and perpetuates stories about Hawaiian music, culture, and history through the voices and sounds of the many kūpuna, musicians, and cultural practitioners that Eddie spoke with in the valleys, small towns, and backcountry. In making the documentaries, the Kamaes shot over 1,500 hours of footage. Only thirty-five percent was used in the final ten films. The in-depth interviews, songs performed, and many other materials found in the Kamae Archive remain.
We believe that the preservation and perpetuation of cultural heritage is best accomplished through education. Eddie and Myrna Kamae have made it a priority to ensure that the Hawaiian Legacy Foundation's films, raw footage, and archival materials can be used by educators to teach children about Hawaiian music and culture.
Given the fragility of the archive and the mission to connect this body of materials with educators and students, there is an urgent need to finish the work. Myrna Kamae and her dedicated team are working to perpetuate this legacy through archival work and developing teaching tools.
We have digitized, cataloged, and made accessible the remaining 1,500 hours of raw footage and other materials found in the archive through the hard work of our partner archive,ʻUluʻulu: The Henry Kuʻualoha Giugni Moving Image Archive. All ten of our ten films are now available through our collection: Hawaiian Legacy Foundation: Eddie & Myrna Kamae.
On May 1, 2022, we released the digital online Eddie Kamae Songbook: A Musical Journey, which features 34 songs that played an essential role in Eddie's life. We hope this songbook keeps the music so special to Eddie alive and is used as a source of curriculum across disciplines, grade levels, and schools. We aim to further work with educators to promote the songbook and integrate it into our schools. If you are interested in collaborating with us, please let us know.