What is Inoa Pō ?

inoa pō
n. Dream name, as a name for an infant believed received in a dream; it was thought that if such a name were not given, the child would be sickly or die. (wehewehe.org)

On a balmy Mānoa (valley in Honolulu) evening in June 1965, Tutu Kawena awoke from her nap, distinctly remembering a specific name she was to gift to her next mo’opuna (grandchild; great-niece or nephew; relatives two generations later, whether blood or adopted). At the very same time in another part of town, my mother was laboring to bring me into this world. In the wee hours of that Sunday morning, I was born to Charlotte and Harry Wengler and received my Hawaiian name: Ka’iuhono’onalani, which means “one who is held in high esteem with the chiefs”.


Makuwahine (Mother) and Tūtū wahine (Grandma – I called her Gram) told me the mo‘ōlelo of my birth, and it is significant to me for several reasons. First of all, in our culture, it is a rare and special phenomenon to be the recipient of an inoa pō at birth; this beautiful and life-lasting treasure is one that our precious Tūtū passed to me from our ‘aumākua. Secondly, I have re-discovered my Hawaiian heritage through this personal journey, and simultaneously, I have re-established my relationship and communication with my higher power or ‘aumakua. This spiritual connection has assisted me tremendously in my recent studies. I deeply believe that my ‘aumakua guides and comforts me through life on a daily basis, as I have been able to hear with keen ears and an open heart, the messages, especially during the past six months. Lastly, Tutu herself was the recipient of inoa pō, (as I will later recount in the section on her biography). I truly enjoy learning about my Kupuna through mo‘olelo and constructing history from interviews, stories, oral history and research…just as she did.


As a fifth year student in the Leadership and Change program, a native Hawaiian doctoral student, and the great grand-daughter of one of the most prolific scholars Hawai’i has ever known (Kamae, 2005), I feel an undeniable sense of privilege and duty: first, to serve our own and to provide support and higher educational opportunities for returning adults either in our home state or on the mainland; second, to find out who I am and discover what it means to be Hawaiian, and finally to learn to speak our language, to embrace our cultural heritage, to research Hawaiian history and to understand the magnitude of the contributions that Tutu Puku’i made.


Precisely, I needed to know for my own sake, who was Mary Kawena Puku’i as a person besides being my kupuna? What exactly did she do to help preserve the Hawaiian legacy, and how did that impact future generations? I feel tremendous gratitude that my questions are being answered through this work. As I conduct the research, I am ever thankful to receive hands-on guidance from my advisor, and dissertation chair Dr. Carolyn Kenny as well as from my native Hawaiian mentor Dr. Peter Hanohano.