Liliuokalani, The Last
Queen of Hawaii
“Never
to cease to act because you fear you may fail." This is one of the many
famous quotes of the first and only Hawaiian queen who ruled the kingdom of
Hawaii, Liliuokalani, The Last Queen of Hawaii.
A
Queen was Born
September 2, 1838 in
Honolulu, on the island of Oʻahu, kingdom of Hawaii, Liliʻuokalani was born.
She was given the birth name Liliʻu Loloku Walania Kamakaʻeha, then
assumed the name Liliuokalani when she became heir apparent to the throne. Upon
her baptism by Reverend Levi Chamberlain, a missionary, teacher, and agent for
the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions' Sandwich Islands
Mission, she was given a Christian name Lydia.
According to sources, Hawaiian names were genderless and
often changed as people and their situations changed. Like for example,
Hawaii’s last queen was born Lydia Liliu Loloku Walania Kamakaeha— “liliʻu
(smarting), loloku(tearful), walania (burning pain) and kamakaʻeha (painful
eye”)— in reference to the eye problem of the revered queen regent, Kinau.
As a child, she was called by her Christian name, Lydia. Then, in 1877, when
her brother, King David Kalakaua, appointed her as heir apparent to the throne,
he modified her name Liliu to the more prestigious
Liliuokalani— “okalani” meaning “of the heavens,” as an
indication of royal status.
Liliuokalani
descended from the generations of chiefs venerated by the Hawaiians as Gods.
She was a member of a high-ranking Hawaiian family. Her biological parents
Analea Keohokālole and Caesar Kapaʻakea descended from Keaweaheulu and Kameʻeiamoku. Keaweaheulu
Kaluaʻapana was a Hawaiian high chief and maternal great-grandfather
of King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani. Kameʻeiamoku was a
Hawaiian high chief and the Counselor of State to King Kamehameha I. Her
mother, Keohokalole, served as an adviser to King Kamehameha III.
Hanai
Tradition
As
a tradition to Hawaiian royals and commoners alike, Liliuokalani along with her
siblings, were hanai or adopted to other families. She was
adopted by Abner
Pākī and his wife Laura Kōnia and was raised like their own together with their
biological daughter Bernice Pauahi. Hanai was the Kanaka
Maoli custom whereby a family informally adopts a child given by someone
else and raises that child as a family member.
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| Liliuokalani and Family |
This custom of Hanai was
practiced ensuring that the Hawaiian culture was passed on from generation to
generation. In Liliuokalani’s biography she describes that hanai "is
not easy to explain... to those alien to our national life, but it seems
perfectly natural to us. As intelligible a reason as can be given is that this
alliance by adoption cemented the ties of friendship between the
chiefs." Basically, this practice is part of the Hawaiin
expression of “Aloha” which not only means Hello or Goodbye, but it may mean
love, affection, compassion, mercy, sympathy, pity, kindness or grace.
A
noble Queen, a proficient Author and master Songwriter
She
started her education at the missionary-run Royal School by missionary Amos
Starr Cooke at the age of four. The school was closed when she was ten because
of an epidemic of measles that took thousands of lives and her three-year-old
sister Ka‘imina‘auao, who was the hanai daughter of Kamehameha III and Queen Kalama.
She finished 3rd in her class on May 5, 1853. In her 20s,
she convinced O’ahu College to accept her as a student even though the school
was exclusive for boys. She informally attended O’ahu College and received
instructions under Mills College Cofounder, Susan Tolman Mills in California.
She quoted “Knowledge has been a passion with me during my whole life,
one which has not lost its charm to the present day.” Aside from her
interest in being educated she also loves to play the guitar, piano, organ,
ukulele and zither.
She also sang in alto, performing Hawaiian and English
sacred and secular music. In her lifetime, she composed over 165 songs and
chants. Her most famous work “Aloha
‘Oe” meaning Farewell to Thee, was about the two lovers bidding
goodbye. Another famous song she wrote, which later became the most respected
song of the Hawaiian Nation, titled “He Mele Lāhui Hawaiʻi" (The Song of
the Hawaiian Nation). She wrote this at the request of the King Kamehameha V in
1866. In Hawaiian history, this is the third of Hawaiʻi's 4 national anthems.
Marriage
and Career life
When her hanai parents passed away, Liliʻuokalani came
under the Bishop's guardianship. During this time, she became a part of the
young social elite under the reign of Kamehameha IV. Liliʻuokalani served as
maid of honor to Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV’s wedding and was also noted
by some royal dignitaries as “The highest unmarried woman in the Kingdom”. She
has been pursued by several gentlemen. She was shortly engaged to William
Charles Lunilao in which she shared interest in music composition, but she then
broke the engagement due to the opposition of the Bishops and the urging of
King Kamehameha IV.
Afterwards, she became romantically involved and got married
to an American-born statesman, John Owen Dominis, who later became the Governor
of Oahu and Maui. She met Dominis during school days. They had been engaged for
two years but had to delay their wedding due to the death of Prince Albert, the
young son of King Kamehameha IV. It was also the King’s request to postpone the
wedding.
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| John Owen Dominis |
After the wedding, the couple moved to Washington Palace
in Honolulu where the Dominise’s residence is. It was said to be an unhappy
marriage with Dominis’ infidelities which bore him a son to one of
Liliʻuokalani’s servants. Since the couple did not have any children,
Liliʻuokalani adopted three hanai children including her husband’s son. Their
union also suffered domestic conflict between Liliʻuokalani and Dominis’ mother
who did not approve of his son’s marriage to a Hawaiian.
In 1881, she acted as regent during King Kalakaua’s world
tour in 1881 and helped raised funds to build “The Queens Hospital” and active
in organizing Schools for Hawaiian youth. During this time she convinced the
governmental board of health to set aside land for a leprosy hospital at Kakaʻako. Then in 1886, she
founded a bank for women in Honolulu named Liliuokalani’s Savings Bank. In the
same year, she also founded the Liliʻuokalani Educational Society which supported the tuition of Hawaiian girls at
Kawaiahaʻo Seminary for Girls.
April 1887, Liliuokalani and her
husband attended Queen Victoria's jubilee as one of delegates acting as the
official envoy of the King. In London, Queen Kapiʻolani and Liliʻuokalani
received an official audience with Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace.
Shortly after the Jubilee celebrations, they learned of the Bayonet
Constitution that King Kalākaua had been forced to sign under the threat
of death. They canceled their tour of Europe and returned to Hawaii.
Ascension
to the throne
After the death of Kamehameha V in 1872 without an heir,
an election for the next monarch was made and Lunalilo got a unanimous vote and
became the first elected king of Hawaii. Two years after, he died without an
heir. This led to another election between the dowager of Kamehameha IV, Queen
Emma and Liliʻuokalani’s brother, David Kalakaua which was won by the latter.
Kalakaua’s accession to the throne paved the way for his
siblings to have royal titles, Princess Lydia Kamakaʻeha Dominis and Princess
Miriam Likelike Cleghorn, as well as his brother William Pitt Leleiohoku which
he named heir to the Hawaiian throne since he and Queen Kapiʻolani had no
children of their own. Leleiohoku died without an heir in 1877, Princess Lydia
was named heir apparent and was known by her royal name, Liliʻuokalani
thereafter. Liliʻuokalani became the first woman to take the throne and rule
over the Kingdom of Hawaii following the death of her brother King Kalakaua in
1891. She was also the last sovereign ruler of the Hawaiian Islands.
During her short-lived regime, Queen Liliʻuokalani
attempted to promulgate a new
Sanford Dole, a son of American Protestant missionaries,
an opponent of the policies of King Kalakaua, and the leader of the reform
movement that the Missionary Party led a committee representing the Hawaiian
sugar businessmen and American allies overthrown Queen Liliuokalani. The
Queen’s abdication in January 1893 and, declaring the queen deposed, announced
the establishment of a provisional government. To avoid bloodshed, Liliuokalani
surrendered, but she appealed to President Cleveland to reinstate her.
President Cleveland ordered the queen restored, but Dole defied the order,
claiming that Cleveland did not have the authority to interfere.
In 1895, royalist Robert Wilcox, led an insurrection in
the queen’s name. Unfortunately, he failed with his plan as he was suppressed
by Dole’s group, and Liliuokalani was kept under house arrest on charges of
treason. On January 24, 1895, to win pardons for her supporters who had been
jailed following the revolt, she agreed to sign a formal abdication.
Liliuokalani established the “Onipa’a” (Stand Firm)
movement which aims to fight annexation and whose belief was “Hawaii for the
Hawaiians”, but she was fighting a losing battle since annexation finally
occurred in July 1898. Liliuokalani spent her remaining days at her Washington
Place estate as a regular citizen and was visited by both local and tourist
alike to pay their respects. She died on November 11, 1917 due to complications
from a stroke at the age of 79 and her remains were placed at the Royal
Mausoleum at Mauna 'Ala.
As part of her efforts to remain strong and leave a
legacy to the future Hawaiian generation, the Queen published Hawaii’s
Story by Hawaii’s Queen Liliuokalani in early 1898. She was working
closely with the American journalist Julius Palmer on the manuscript. The book
reflects her experiences and perspectives during her reign up to her
imprisonment and Hawaii’s annexation. She quoted "Love of country is
deep-seated in the breast of every Hawaiian, whatever his station." This
classic work is the only autobiography written by a Hawaiian monarch. Through
the years, Lili‘uokalani never wavered in her commitment to the people of
Hawai‘i. In her will, she entrusted her estate to provide for orphan children
of Hawaiian blood, amended later to include other destitute children. Her
legacy is perpetuated today through the Lili‘uokalani Trust. The Lili‘uokalani
Trust has locations on each of Hawaiian Islands, with the exception of the
island of Ni‘ihau.
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