Tag: Liliuokalani

Queen Liliuokalani and the Chinese Community

Image may contain: 1 person
One of the most under-documented areas of study is Hawaiʻi-China relations in the 19th century. As early as King Kamehameha I, Kamehameha had Chinese at his court. They were mostly traders interested in sandalwood. Hawaiʻi to Chinese was known for its sandalwood, so much so that the Chinese name for the Hawaiian Islands was “Sandalwood Mountains.” Large scale Chinese immigration, however, did not begin until the reign of King Kamehameha IV. The King originally tried to get immigration from Indonesia, particularly Western Indonesia which was then and still is predominately Christian. But the Dutch government (which controlled Indonesia) refused. So the King negotiated with the Chinese Empire. Most Chinese expatriate communities in SE Asia and the US are from Guandong and Fujian (Fukian), but Hawaiʻi most early Chinese were Punti, Hakka, and Hmong. This is a reason why traditional Chinese food in Hawaiʻi tastes distinctively different than Chinese food in restaurants in say New York, Manila or Singapore. Many of the Chinese married Hawaiian women, Hawaiianized their last names using the Cantonese honorific A (i.e. Afong became Ahuna, Chi became Aki, Ching became Akina, etc), and a Chinese pidgin of Hawaiian emerged. One of the most famous Chinese immigrants in Hawaiʻi was Chun Ah Fong who was Hawaiʻiʻs first multi-millionaire. He married Julia Fayerweather, a Hawaiian who was also an adopted sister to Princess Likelike. Ah Fong also became the first Chinese to be appointed to a Hawaiian government position–that of Privy Council member–of King Kalākaua. King Kalākaua himself visited China in 1881 and was greatly loved by the Chinese in Hawaiʻi. During a speech contest at St Albanʻs (now called ʻIolani), a young Chinese student won and was given a portrait of King Kalākaua and got to meet both the King and Queen Emma. That young student was Sun Yatsen, the father of modern China. Throughout the 1880s, the then Princess Liliʻuokalani consistently backed Chinese plantation workers and supported Chinese cultural institutions in Hawaiʻi. The Chinese community in Hawaiʻi hosted lavish celebrations on the birthdays of King Kalākaua and later Queen Liliʻuokalani up until her passing in 1917.

In the political turmoil of the late 1880s, the Chinese were the second most affected. In 1887, under the Bayonet Constitution, Chinese and Japanese lost their voting rights because Asians were no longer allowed to vote at all despite if they were Hawaiʻi citizens. Europeans and Americans who had property could vote regardless of their citizenship. Chinese businessmen had helped to fund the 1889 Wilcox Rebellion and many them had a close relationship to Joseph Nāwahī through his wife, Emma ʻAʻima, who herself was part Chinese.

When the Queen deposed in 1893, Japanese and Chinese plantation workers threatened to revolt. Most people remember the Queen for not wanting the bloodshed of her people, but the Queen also was deeply concerned about bloodshed of the Chinese and urged Chinese figures to urge other Chinese to pursue non-violence as she believed that the US would do the right thing. The Chinese diplomatic legation in Hawaiʻi recognized the Provisional Government as the de facto government over the Hawaiian Islands but at the same time, many (if not most) Chinese hated the new government. Members of the Provisional and later Republic saw the Chinese as essentially as slaves on their plantations. However, they actually feared the Chinese as an economic threat as they were engaged directly with various commercial activities. Queen Liliʻuokalani had strong relationships with both the Japanese and Chinese communities in Hawaiʻi. 

For Chinese, like their Hawaiian counterparts, the Queen was still the legitimate ruler. Chinese had helped to fund the 1895 nationalist uprising and leading Chinese members were arrested and deported. Samuel Aki, a part-Hawaiian part-Chinese, was a member of Hui Aloha ʻĀina and he represented the Chinese immigrant concerns in the anti-annexation movement. One of the most ardent Hawaiian nationalists was Emma Nāwahī, as mentioned earlier. Chinese who married Hawaiian women signed the 1897 Kūʻē petitions against annexation the United States. While Chinese diplomatic officials recognized the Provisional Government and the Republic of Hawaiʻi, they were writing to their home government in Beijing not to recognize annexation because a majority of people of all races were against it. The government of the Guangxu Emperor did not want to again challenge a foreign power as it just lost wars to Britain, France, and Japan.

When “Annexation Day” came in 1898, Chinese businesses closed their businesses and like their Hawaiian counterparts, also mourned. After “annexation”, Chinese supported the Hawaiian Home Rule Party and later the Democratic Party under Prince David Kawānanakoa. The Empire of China, however, maintained itʻs diplomatic legation as if annexation did not happen. When the Qing Dynasty was replaced by a Republic, the new Chinese President Sun Yatsen recognized annexation. When the Queen passed away in 1917, the new Chinese President Féng Guózhāng rerouted a warship headed to Europe–China had fought as an ally during WWI–to attend the funeral of Queen Liliʻuokalani as a sign of Chinaʻs appreciation of the Queen

Racism and the Queen.

It is most unfortunate that many Hawaiians today have forgotten the historical racism that their kūpuna and even their own Queen experienced. This was one of the reasons that the Monarchy in Hawai’i was very different from the monarchies in Europe–they first hand the racism and prejudices of the time through personal experiences and from political cartoons. 

Below is one such example. 

The queen was not allowed to stay in certain hotels because either 1) they did not allow “coloreds” or 2) they thought she was black. In one of these hotels, she was directly told that the hotel management did not allow “n*ggers” to stay in their suites. This article by the way was published by the Hawaiian Gazette in December 10, 1901–after the US had already taken over Hawaiʻi–and took place in New York.
 Image may contain: 1 person

The Liliuokalani Educational Society

No automatic alt text available.

During the reign of King Kalākaua, the Throne Room hosted his Hale Nauā, a cultural and scientific organization dedicated to perpetuating the deeper traditions and sciences of the Hawaiian people. They discussed history, re-enacted ancient traditions, debated on scientific topics, and talked about ways to inspire Hawaiians.

During the brief reign of Queen Liliʻuokalani, the Throne Room began to host lectures cosponsored by the Queen and her Liliʻuokalani Educational Society (LES). LES was founded during the time that the Queen was still a Princess and was dedicated to advancing the educational needs of Native Hawaiian girls particularly orphans and girls born of a socially marginalised background (i.e. girls born from prostitutes or of single mothers). These girls were sent to private schools or to special public schools with their tuition and boarding fees paid for by the Society. The Societyʻs Board of Directors with the exception of Prince-Consort John Owen Dominis, who was an honorary member and helped with fundraising. He in fact donated more than $12,000 to the society–something equal to $200,000 in todayʻs money) LES had their own flag (attached image) composed of the Hawaiian Crown, the torch of ʻIwikauikaua, and a scroll that read Hui Hoʻonaʻaʻau (o) Liliʻuokalani.

When Liliʻuokalani ascended the Throne, the Queen began to have monthly lectures in the Throne Room dedicated to “Literature and History” for the girls under the sponsorship of the Society as well as for donors and members of the Society. One of the first lecturers was Florence Augusta Stephens Williams of the Danish Antilles (now called the US Virgin Islands). Williams was the first “native Caribbean librarian” and would be considered Afro-Antillean or Afro-Caribbean in todayʻs racial identification. She was college educated (which was rare for women of that time), spoke several languages and her lecture was on French Emperor Napoleon in particular Napoleonʻs legacies in the Caribbean and in Latin America. The main library in her hometown of St. Croix, US Virgin Islands is named after her. Speakers at these events were women writers and professionals and often Hawaiian or women of color. Hawaiian history lectures were given by Judge Emma Kaʻili Metcalf Beckley Nakuina, the girls were learning Hawaiian history not just by a judge but someone who was actually Hawaiian. The aim of these lectures were not only to inspire a love of history and literature in the girls under the care of the Society, but to impress upon the minds of the audience and the public that women are intellectuals and there are women in professional fields. With the coup of 1893, all of this came to an end and the Society was forced to dismantle itself by decree by the decree of the new government due to itʻs royalist and pro-Hawaiian links. I dare say too that an organisation that sought to educate young women to be intellectuals and rise above their social class was also a threat to the a government built by an oligarchy of entitled rich men.

The Arrest of the Queen

On January 16th, 1895, Deputy Marshal Arthur Brown and Captain Robert Waipa Parker–two police officers from the self-proclaimed Republic of Hawai’i–came up to steps of Washington Place. They knocked on the door and one of Queen Lili’uokalani’s attendents, Mrs. Eveline Wilson, answered and directed the police officers to the front parlor. The Queen, who was in the back verandah arrived, was told by Brown that they had a warrant for her arrest but refused to allow the Queen to inspect the warrant. She was then told that she could take one of her ladies-in-waiting with her, Mrs. Mary Clark, with her. (It would turn out that Mary’s husband, Charles, who came from a prominent and wealthy missionary family, was a royalist lieutnant in the uprising against the Republic that started on January 6th.) The Queen, Mrs. Brown, and Mrs. Clark then began pack clothes for the Queen and the Queen entered the carriage of Deputy Marshal Brown. Mrs. Clark and the others would come in a second police carriage. As they drove away from Washington Place to ‘Iolani Palace, she noticed that the Chief Justice of the Republic, Albert Judd, was entering the Queen’s home.  Justice Judd would confiscate diaries, petitions, draft constitutions, letters and other very important political documents that would have justified the Queen’s actions over the course of her two years reign–papers that the Queen would never again see again.
As the carriage approached ‘Iolani Palace, the Republican National Guard had turned the Palace into their barracks. Soldiers, sandbags and tents were everywhere on the Palace lawn and canons were pointed towards all the major gates. When the Queen ascended the throne, the Palace was surrounded by tall concrete gate walls. some of these walls had been destoryed during the First Wilcox Rebellion of 1889. In 1892, the Queen ordered all of the walls around the Palace lowered to 3 feet and a new iron fence to surround the Palace, which we still see today. The Queen wanted to her people to see her and to see their Palace. Now, part of the fences were covered in wooden blanks and the Palace was now a fort. Once her palace, now it would be her prison. As the Queen, dressed in black, dismounted from the carriage, she was told to pose for a photograph. She declined but they took a picutre of her anyways climbing up the steps of the Palace–the one attached to this note. Colonel Joseph Henry Fisher and two other members of the Republican National Guard came down steps from the verandah  of the Palace to meet the Queen and to escort her into the Palace. The entire party climbed the Grand Staircase and as they made their way up, the Cogswell portrait of the Queen that had hung in the Blue Room of the Palace was there on the landing. The Republic was preparing to auction off the Palace furniture and had began to move the “unnecessary” furniture to the second floor of the Palace for cateloguing and storage until the auction. As the guards, Deputy Marshall Brown, and Colonel Fisher saw the portrait, they stopped. They looked at the portrait and then looked the Queen beside them. One of the guards remarked in Portuguese,  “o que fizemos?” (What have we done?). Mrs. Clark began to sob. The Queen looked at her everyone, then looked straight at Colonel Fisher, and said calmly “Gentlemen, shall we?” The party continued until they reached the corner room of the Palace and papers were exchanged between Deputy Marshal Brown and Colonel Fisher regarding the custody of the Queen.
Mrs. Clark began to look around at the furniture. What she saw was furniture that was selected by the Republic to humiliate the Queen–an old hospital single bed, an old couch, some wooden shelves, a writing desk, and a dresser. The room the Republic had selected for the Queen was also the hottest room in the Palace because it constantly faced the afternoon sun. The panes of the windows were also painted over–as it is painted over today–so that the Queen could not see the outside world nor could the outside world see the Queen.  This was to be her imprisonment room or as the older generation called it, her “room of tears”. Special instructions were given to Colonel Fisher and any guard in the presence of the Queen not to address her as “Your Majesty” or even as “Ma’am”. Nor were they to bow or courtsie. They were told to address her simply as “the prisoner” and not to look directly at her. Four guards were assigned to the Queen and they were to march around the perimeter of the room of the Queen throughout the day. To make doubly sure, only illiterate Portuguese militia men who had little connections with Hawai’i were placed as guards to the Queen. They were taught to march very loudly on the ouside verandah so that the Queen could hear their boots on the tiled floor throughout the day.  For many Hawaiians, we can still hear their boots marching in our hearts because the arrest of the Queen was an wound that still feels fresh to many of us. After setting up the room, Mrs. Wilson volunteered to stay with the Queen as Mrs. Clark was deeply concerned about her husbands whereabouts.
In her words, “…The substance of my crime was that I knew my people were conspiring to re-establish the constitutional government, to throw off the yoke of the stranger and oppressor; and I had not conveyed this knowledge to the persons I had never recognized except as unlawful usurpers of authority, and had not informed against my own nation and against their friends who were also my long-time friends…It was the intention of the officers of the government to humiliate me by imprisoning me, but my spirit rose above that. I was a martyr to the cause of my people, and was proud of it….” (Hawai’i’s Story by Hawai’i’s Queen, Chapter XLV). The Queen would also later say that the first night of her imprisonment was the longest night in her life. 
As word spread of the Queen’s arrest, those who had continue to fight against the Republic in the January 6 uprising laid down their arms because they feared that the arrest of the Queen was a prelude to executing her. Indeed that was the case. Minister Thurston and other members of the Executive Council of the Republic wanted to behead the Queen. Dole, the president of the self-proclaimed Republic, believed that any violence against the Queen would lead to international condemnation. Indeed, that was also true because as the arrest of the Queen began to be known world wide, Dole recieved word from Washington DC and from London that any attempt to execute the Queen would mean a withdrawal of their diplomatic agents. So the Republic settled on arresting and trialing the Queen. Without the arrest of the Queen, the uprising would have continued. Although the nationalist and royalists forces were outgunned and unprepared (as the uprising was supposed to have started a week later had it not been for a spy),  many of their leaders had been arrested, they wanted to get rid of the Republic at all costs. Kanaka Maoli were fighting for their homeland and the non-Kanaka Maoli were fighting for an adopted country that they loved. They were tired of the harassment, the spies, the corruption, and being alienated from governing themselves.  They wanted their freedom back and they were willing to make the ultimate sacriface. But they were unwilling to risk the life of their Queen. 
In the meantime, the Queen, some 400 nationalist and royalist leaders (including Princes Kuhio and Kawananakoa, Joseph Nawahi, Robert Wilcox, etc), and the entire Hawaiian nation would became their prisoner. Even within my own family, my great grandfather and my great granduncle were both arrested for their participation in the uprising.  But they were not simply prisoners. They were martyrs as the Queen put it. They were our kūpuna. They were every people around the world who longed for freedom. They, the lives they lived, and the nation they fought for, we should always remember. 

The Queen’s Speech, 1892.

I was going through my notes and I was rereading Speeches from the Throne, which were sort of like how the Americans have their State of the Union address except its done in the first day of the opening of a legislative session. This is an excerpt from Queen Lili’uokalani’s Speech From the Throne, May 28th, 1892, which would be her last:”…The decree of Providence and the Constitution of the Kingdom having called Me to occupy the Throne of Hawaii, it is my earnest prayer that Divine assistance may be vouchsafed to enable Me to discharge the duties of the exalted position to the advantage of My people and the permanent benefit of Hawaii…Fully recognizing that by the Constitution and laws of the Kingdom My station is that of a Constitutional Monarch, accepting the will of My people as pronounced by them through their representatives in the Legislature and My Constitutional Advisers the Ministers of the Crown, I shall firmly endeavour to preserve the autonomy and absolute independence of this Kingdom, and to assist in perpetuating the rights and privileges of all who are subject to Our laws and in promoting their welfare and happiness….”Its is interesting how the Queen used certain terms in the speech including “autonomy and absolute independence”, “rights and privileges”, and “welfare and happiness”. The Queen in choosing these words was sending a clear signal that she did recognize that she was a Constitutional Monarch but that her chief tasks were to “firmly” preserve the cherished independence of our nation and to promote the general happiness and welfare of her people even against opposition. It is not enough for a leader to simply promote rights and to preserve political independence but to continue indefinitely (perpetuate) the rights and privileges that the people, her people, had long fought for and gained under independence. But people on the top must also “assist” in perpetuating these hard won rights or else its simply lip service. Furthermore, what good is independence and rights if the general population is unhappy and living in a demeaning state such as being poverty-stricken, chronic joblessness, or facing discrimination in their own homeland? The Queen answers some of these questions later in her speech with the words “My Ministers will submit for your consideration the Reports of their several Departments and the las necessary for the welfare of the Kingdom and the promotion of the objects I have referred to.” Among the laws the Queen’s Ministers submitted was a bill calling for a Constitutional Convention, a law requiring the American military to leave Pearl Harbor (as they had violated the Reciprocity Treaty and were illegally building military structures), a National Lottery Bill, and a complete reform on the Crown and Government laws which would have created homestead settlements for Native Hawaiians and poor citizens, and the amend the “Primacy of the Pacific” resolution to affirm that the Hawaiian Kingdom was and not part of North America or Europe but of “Asia and Oceania”. These are some of the thoughts the Queen had when she wrote this short speech. She was seriously thinking about what is our identity as a nation and what does it mean to have “independence” and “rights”. It is humbling to think that over a 100 years ago, our leaders were thinking of these ideas. If only more pf us today would think of such relevant questions and develop plans to promote the general happiness and welfare of our people and everyone in Hawai’i who “subject to our laws”, as our leaders a century ago did.

Queen Lili’uokalani

In honor of Queen Lili’uokalani’s birthday this year, I decided to write some thoughts about what Queen Lili’uokalani means to most Hawaiians, including myself.

As a boy, I can remember a portrait of the Queen hanging in the living room of my grandmother’s living room. Her portrait always hung above the pictures and photographs of family members because she was the Queen.  Such was the power of Queen Lili’uokalani that even though she had passed away seventy years previously, she was still referred to as “the Queen” by my grandmother as though she were still very much alive. I believe that my household was not unique in that sense. I know many Hawaiians who have at least one picture or portrait of the Queen somewhere in the house and who still speaks of the Queen in the present tense (“the Queen”) rather than the more technically correct past tense form (e.g. “the late Queen”).  But then  in a sense she never really did pass away in the hearts of most Hawaiians because the tragedy and the struggle of not just her reign but her entire lifetime remains very much in the present tense for us as a people, as her people.  She has come to represent for us as a people the contradictions of our political situation and within our very own souls.

She was a devout Christian yet knew the ancient Hawaiian traditions backwards and forwards in fact she translated the Kumulipo into English while she was imprisoned.

She was a member of an aristocratic family that helped to rule the island of Hawai’i hundreds of years before Captain Cook stumbled upon that island yet the Queen deeply believed in democracy, social justice and popular government.

The Queen was deposed by an American-back coup and fought hard against annexation yet when five Hawaiian sailors lost their lives abroad the USS Aztec (which it was hit by German  u-boats during World War I), she raised the American flag over her own private home Washington Place as a gesture to honor their sacrifice.

1893

Instead of writing my unusual blog posts which is normally sprinkled with Hawaiian laws and other references, I thought I would write a more personal post.  For an indigenous Hawaiian, its sometimes very difficult to maintain an emotional distance in talking about certain events in our past. Among these events is what happened in 1893.

I was fortunate growing up because I had my grandmother around. She spoke fluent Hawaiian and was born  some either in 1900 and 1901.  Her father was born during the reign of Kamehameha V and died sometime in 1910s.  He had served in the Hawaiian government in various capacities and fought in the 1895 uprising. He was also the grandson of Princess Elizabeth Kina’u and Governor Luanu’u through their daughter Rebecca and so had a fairly privileged but very private life. His wife, Liliana Kinimaka, died sometimes in 1906 from leprosy. When he contracted leprosy and died, my grandmother was raised by her aunt, Keahialaka Alapa’i, who chanted at King Kalakaua’s Golden Jubilee though for the most part my immediate family stayed far away from King Kalakaua because they were supporters of Queen Dowager Emma and for most of the early part of the King’s reign, they worked under Princess Ruth. The irony is that he married a Kinimaka and the Kinimakas were strong supporters of King Kalakaua. I’m guessing their political differences helped make their relationship exciting as I know that my great grandparents were madly in love.

So growing up with my grandmother, I heard stories about ‘Umi and other ancient chiefs. I heard stories about her aunt and uncles.  Despite my grandmother’s Mormonism, she also recounted stories about kupua, about the various akua,  and the old Hawaiian religion. One of the stories I never heard about was what happened in 1893. My grandmother died one year before the ‘Onipa’a observance of the “Overthrow” happened in 1993. When the observance happened, it made me wonder why I never heard about what happened in 1893. I asked my mother and she said that perhaps she was too young when her own parents died so she didn’t hear the stories. I could recount the stories of ‘Umi but had no idea why my grandmother never discussed it.

Throughout the year that were lots of TV programs about the “overthrow”. But I could not simply watch it. Anything having to do with the “overthrow” was too emotional to watch and I could not simply explain why. I could not even watch plays about Princess Ka’iulani. Then five years later, Dr. Noenoe Silva found the anti-annexation petitions and I found the signatures of several of my family’s members including the great grandfather’s. I then began to ask questions from my mother’s oldest siblings.  I remember the simple answer my aunt gave me and to which continues to haunt me today. She said that those things could not be discussed because “When something is too painful the only way was not to talk about it. We are Hawaiians. We were expected to always be happy, be entertainers and in my generation not to be smart, not to ask questions, to simply be happy. When we got sad or upset thinking about happened, we hide it inside because that’s what we were told we were supposed to do as Hawaiians. The haoles come, steal the land. We were supposed to be happy. Now they sell the land to the kepani and we still are supposed to be happy. The haole lifestyle, the haole laws, they no work for us but they keep saying Hawaiians got to be patient, be humble, try harder and you got to be happy because its the best for you. Well we ain’t happy. We haven’t been happy for over a hundred years. Maybe longer. That’s why so many drink. Me, I eat.”

It was then that I realized why for people like my grandmother, it was so difficult to talk about what happened in 1893 just as it is even difficult for me until now to watch any movie or play about what happened or to write this blog post. The pain of what happened in 1893 is just too deep for many of us. Its a pain that is too real for many of us. Those who lived in countries that have been that were occupied or invaded by another country or whose culture was continually either objectified or demonized for generations are really the only ones that can understand this feeling. I recall meeting a Greek some years ago and we were talking about history.  He told me that for many Greeks, 1453 (the year Constantinople fell to the Turks) is still etched in their memories as if it happened last year because of the trauma it caused for generations. For many Americans, a hundred years or five hundred years years seems like very distant ancient time especially given that the United States is not a particular old country.

But for indigenous peoples like indigenous Hawaiians and for those who suffered under the thumb of an alien power, what happened a hundred years or five hundred years still feels like a pulsating wound in our souls especially when that wound has carried from generation to generation.

I would later find out not through spoken words but from diaries, letters, and court papers what happened to my great grandfather.  After 1893, he sank into a deep depression. He was a man who served the Big Island of Hawai’i for most of his life either working under the governor or as a legislature during the Kingdom era. He spoke English, French, and Hawaiian fluent and was firmly a royalist. With what happened in 1893, he lost all of his positions as he refused to take an oath to the Republic. He fought in the 1895 uprising, was jailed, and then retired to Honoka’a. Its claimed that he was among those who were tortured for information because of the scars. During the Dole administration, some of his private ancestral lands were taken by the Territorial Government without compensation to build the highway. His wife, Liliana contracted leprosy while visiting relatives and was sent to Moloka’i. My great grandfather was not informed of this and searched for her for a year only to find out that she died. Officially she died of leprosy but others say it was actually TB. He then exiled himself to Moloka’i to work on the colony so he could be close to the grave of his wife and that’s where he himself died of leprosy.  My grandmother and her two sisters would fight for thirty years against territorial and state governments and against certain sugar interests on the Big Island to reclaim some of the ancestral lands that belonged to their father. They went into so many courts hearings that they ended up being invited to retirement parties for some of the judges. When my grandmother died, the land dispute with the State and certain private developers was still going on.  But all of this started with 1893.

These are the types of things that as Hawaiians we have been told to be “happy” about or to “forget it its the past”.   But we can’t because they’ve happened so many times to so many other families. These are our stories. This is our history as Hawaiians for the last hundred years. This is what we still are going through. Every time we have to drop our kids off at school and see the flag pole with the American flag over our own flag, we are reminded of 1893. When we are doing genealogy work and looking at court papers, we are reminded of 1893. When people claim that anyone can be Hawaiian when in fact they never had to live through this history, to live through this pain, we are again reminded of 1893. No, we are not crybabies or victims and we can’t “get over it” because we constantly have to relive the events through our genealogies, through our history, through our stories, through each other, and through what has become of Hawai’i nei. 


We are Hawaiians. We don’t want money. We don’t want sympathy. We don’t want some kind of quasi nation or special political status within the United States. We want our history back. We want our families back. We want our ‘aina back. We want to be free. We want to be happy. 


Despite the centuries. Despite whatever clothes we wear. Despite whatever language we speak. Despite whom we marry. We are still Hawaiians and as Hawaiians, we still carry that wound within us and that we have yet to find words as a people to really express that pain–if that pain can be even be expressed. 


“…Ke maopopo he Hawai`i au”