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Eddie Kamae and the Sons of Hawaiʻi (George Kuo, Dennis Kamakahi, Junior Daugherty, and Claybourne “Braddah Smitty” Smith) at Hoʻokena School on Hawaiʻi island performing at the first school program for the film Liʻa: The Legacy of a Hawaiian Man, 1990. Photo credit: Bob Fewell.

I do it for the children. They are the future of Hawaiʻi. I want them to know the sights, sounds, and voices of authentic Hawaiian culture.
—Eddie Kamae

Eddie and Myrna’s primary focus has always been the children of Hawaiʻi. Eddie’s three teachers—Mary Kawena Pukui, Pilahi Paki, and Sam Liʻa Kalāinaina—instilled in him a lifelong mission to teach children about Hawaiian culture through the music and life stories of kūpuna. For over three decades, their non-profit, The Hawaiian Legacy Foundation, has reached over 500,000 children by providing public and private classrooms across Hawaiʻi with ten award-winning documentaries, study guides, and school presentations.

In May 2022, the foundation published The Eddie Kamae Songbook: A Musical Journey. It was created to support Eddie and Myrna’s mission of providing culturally relevant educational resources for educators, students, and their families. The songbook features 34 songs that were important to Eddie and foster a deeper understanding of the history, traditions, and culture around Hawaiian music. The songbook is free and entirely online. Each song includes primary materials from the Kamae Archive.

Our goal is to work with educators to integrate The Eddie Kamae Songbook into K-12 and post-secondary classrooms. If you are an educator interested in using the songbook, please get in touch with Myrna Kamae at myrnakamae@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you and learn how we can support you.

Here, too, are the study guides that we have created for some of our films.

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