It is important to know a little about Hawaiian customs and culture in order to understand Lili’uokalani’s family life. When the first Polynesians inhabited the Hawaiian Islands, they were an assortment of family groups, with no sense of nation. Under King Kamehameha the Great, the peoples of the islands became united as one people of Hawaii. The Hawaiian people were deeply spiritual, seeing evidence of their gods in the elements of nature, such as rainbows, sunshine and rain. Their alii (high chiefs) ruled them as benevolent fathers and mothers. The people, in return were their loyal retainers. In order to cement the unity between alii, it was the custom for a high chief’s children to be given to another of the alii to rear as their own. Following this tradition, the High Chiefess Keohokalole, of the court of Kamehameha III, gave her next child to High Chief Paki and High Chiefess Konia. That child was the future queen, who was named Liliu Kamakacha at birth.[1]
Liliu was born on September 2nd, 1938. It is said that at the moment of her birth, a rainbow appeared over the misty Nuuanu Valley, which was the sign of a great alii. A few hours after her birth, the little Liliu was wrapped in soft tapa cloth and taken to her hanai (foster) parents, Paki and Konia. At the age of two she was baptized and given the Christian name, Lydia. It was decided that she should enter the “Royal School”, run by missionaries, Amos and Juliette Cooke when she was four.
In her own words, Lili’uokalani describes her fear upon being brought to the school for the first time. As my attendant “put me down at the entrance of the schoolhouse, I shrank from its doors, with that immediate and strange dread of the unknown so common to childhood. Crying bitterly, I turned to my faithful attendant, clasping her with my arms and clinging closely to her neck. She tenderly expostulated with me; and as the children, moved by curiosity to meet the new-comer, crowded about me, I was soon attracted by their friendly faces, and was induced to go into the old courtyard with them. Then my fears began to vanish, and comforted and consoled, I soon found myself at home amongst my playmates.”[2] It was during this time that the young “Lydia” learned to speak and write English beautifully. She had a great love of music and was allowed to learn the piano. Later she would write more than 200 songs, including “Aloha Oe”, her best known.[3] Listen to Aloha Oe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wP-4ZV8sv0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wP-4ZV8sv0
[1] Helena G. Allen, The Betrayal of Lili’uokalani, Last Queen of Hawaii 1838-1917 (Arthur H. Clark Company: Glendale, 1982), 32.
[2] Lili’uokalani, Queen of Hawaii (1838-1917), Hawaii’s Story By Hawaii’s Queen (Lee and Shepard: Boston, 1898).
[3] Helena G. Allen, The Betrayal of Lili’uokalani, Last Queen of Hawaii 1838-1917 (Arthur H. Clark Company: Glendale, 1982), 18.
