Traditionally, it was not uncommon for Hawaiian chiefly women to train and fight alongside their chiefly male counterparts (normally husbands, brothers or fathers). We often forget about these women who fought as equals with their men folk. But one such woman was Manono (II).
Manono II (died 1819) was a Hawaiian female chief and half sister to Kalanimoku and a cousin to Ka’ahumanu. Manono along with her second spouse, Keaoua Kekuaokalani, died fighting for the Hawaiian religion after Kamehameha II abolished the kapu system. Kekuaokalani, in addition to be chief priest of Kūkaʻilimoku, was perceived by many Hawaiian aliʻi to be the true heir of Kamehameha I. Manono went against her own family in order to support her traditional religion and her spouse. King Kalākaua wrote of this couple as the last “Knights of old Hawaiʻi” in his “Legends and Myths of Hawaiʻi”. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Manono II became a symbol of resistance to Westernization.
British missionary William Ellis of the London Missionary Society gives us the following account of Kekuaokalani and Manono:
“The small tumuli increased in number as we passed along, until we came to a place called Tuamoo [Kuamo’o]. Here Kekuaokalani made his last stand, rallied his flying forces, and seemed, for a moment, to turn the scale of victory; but being weak with the loss of blood, from a wound he had received in the early part of the engagement, he fainted and fell. However, he soon revived, and, though unable to stand, sat on a fragment of lava, and twice loaded and fired his musket on the advancing party. He now received a ball in his left breast, and immediately covering his face with his feather cloak, expired in the midst of his friends. His wife Manono during the whole of the day fought by his side with steady and dauntless courage. A few moments after her husband’s death, perceiving Karaimoku [Kalanimoku] and his sister [Kahakuhaʻakoi Wahinepi’o] advancing, she called out for quarter; but the words had hardly escaped from her lips, when she received a ball in her left temple, fell upon the lifeless body of her husband, and instantly expired. The idolaters having lost their chief, made but feeble resistance afterwards; yet the combat, which commenced in the forenoon, continued till near sunset, when the king’s troops, finding their enemies had all either fled or surrendered, returned to Kairua [Kailua-Kona].”
In Hawaiian accounts, Manono sees her spouse being hit with a musket and rushes to him and covers his face with his cloak. She loads his gun, shoots his rifle a couple of times, and is herself shot. Her body falls next to Kekuaokalani, holding his hand.
There is also a mele which recalls the last moments between Manono and Kekuaokalani on the eve of the Battle of Kuamoʻo:
E Manono la, ea,
E Manono la, ea
Kau ka ‘ope’ope,
Ka ulu-hala la, ea
Ka uluhe la, ea,
Ka uluhe la ea
A hiki pu’unana
Hali’i punana
No huli mai
Huli mai ‘oe la
Moe kaua
Hali’i punana
No huli mai
Huli mai ‘oe la
Moe kaua
Moe aku kaua
O ka wai welawela
O ka papa lohi
A o Maukele la.
Moe aku kaua;
O ka wai welawela,
O ka papa lohi
O maukele.
A kele, a kele
Kou mana’o la ea
A kele, a kele
Kou manao la ea
Come now, Manono,
Come Manono, I say,
Take up your bundle
Through groves of pandanus.
Amid wild stag-horn fern,
Wearisome ferns lie our way.
Arrived at the hill top
We’ll smooth out the nest
That we may snuggle close
Turn now to me dear,
While we rest here,
Make us a little nest,
That we may draw near,
Turn your face this way, dear,
While we rest here,
Rest you and I here
Near the warm, warm water
And the smooth lava plate
Of Maukele
Rest you and I here
Near the warm, warm water
And the smooth lava plate
Of Maukele
Little by little
Your thoughts will be mine,
Little by little
Your thoughts will be mine
Adam Keawe Manalo-Camp 