The US Mint has issued the Edith Kanakaʻole Quarter, in celebration of the life and legacy of Edith Kanakaʻole, an indigenous Hawaiian composer and teacher. She passed away in 1979 at the age of 66.

Kanakaʻole, or “Aunty Edith”, as she is commonly known, was a renowned practitioner of and authority on modern Hawaiian culture and language. She learned hula from her mother, who was instructed by the acclaimed dancer Akoni Mika.

Kanakaʻole believed that the oli, or Hawaiian chants, formed the basis of Hawaiian values and history. She started composing oli in 1946 and choreographed hula to go with many of her chants.

In the 1950s, she toured the contiguous United States, western Canada, and much of Asia with a hula group named after her daughter Nalani. She also founded her own hālau (hula school), Halau O Kekuhi.

Read more about Edith Kanakaʻole as well as the specific details of her honorary quarter here.