National Endowment for the Arts Statement on the Death of National Heritage Fellow Nalani Kanaka'ole
1993 NEA National Heritage Fellow Nalani Kanaka'ole (left) with her sister Pualani Kanaka'ole Kanahel. Photo by William T. Geiger
Washington, DC—It is with great sadness that the National Endowment for the Arts acknowledges the passing of hula master Nalani Kanaka'ole of Hilo, Hawaii, who along with her sister Pualani Kanaka'ole Kanahel was the recipient of a 1993 NEA National Heritage Fellowship. Together, they inherited Halau 'O Kekuhi, the hula school founded in 1953 by their mother, the well-known chanter and hula master Edith Kanaka'ole. In 2023, the U.S. Mint featured Edith Kanaka'ole on a quarter as part of the American Women Quarters Program.
In the summer of 2024, Kanaka'ole and her dance troupe performed at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival as part of the Indigenous Voices of the Americas program. Learn more and watch their performance on the Festival blog: Dancing with Fire: Hālau o Kekuhi Kindles Its Culture’s Dreams. In 2025, the Kanakaʻole sisters were honored by the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts for their lifetime dedication to preserving and advancing traditional Hawaiian chant, mele, and performance.
For more information on Kanakaʻole and the traditional mele hula, or "danced poetry," of the Kanaka'ole sisters, visit arts.gov.
