Hawaii - Myths - Legends - Kings - Queens - History - All The Stuff Tolkien Loved!
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Hawaii - Myths - Legends - Kings - Queens - History - All The Stuff Tolkien Loved!
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Hi, I\\u2019m Christy Shriver and we\\u2019re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.\\xa0
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I\\u2019m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit podcast.\\xa0 This week we are going in a totally different direction \\u2013 literally and figuratively- doing something we\\u2019ve never done before.\\xa0 Inspired by Tolkien\\u2019s love of mythology and genealogy, his fondness for names and the combination of all these put together, we are going to spend a week talking about one of the most enchanting and remote places on earth- the islands of Hawaii.\\xa0 Christy, from a historical perspective, Hawaii\\u2019s history is fascinating, and in some ways a micro-expression of a lot of what has happened all over the world.\\xa0 It is a place of immense beauty, incredible tragedy- a place where people have been exploited and brutalized, but also a place that starts and ends every conversation with a greeting of love- aloha.\\xa0 I went there for the first time years ago and lived for a short while.\\xa0 As a teacher, I was on summer break and I spent every day in the sun with my beautiful three year old daughter, Emily.\\xa0 We played on the sand of the beaches and watched the surfers- mostly just soaking in the sights, sounds and smells of a place that felt so far away from the\\xa0MidWest\\xa0of my birth or Memphis.\\xa0 I had hardly ever even flown on an airplane up to that point in my life.\\xa0 It was the only time in my life where I had a tan I could be proud of.\\xa0 I\\u2019m one of those people that burns and not tans.\\xa0 I was mesmerized by much of it.\\xa0
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I was always enchanted with it\\xa0as well- without ever having been.\\xa0 I remember when my grandparents went there on their 50th\\xa0anniversary.\\xa0 My grandmother, who married my grandfather at the age of 15, who never went to high school, who worked for the telephone company all of her life, came back gushing from Hawaii talking about how beautiful and magical it was.\\xa0 She also talked about meeting Tom Selleck, but that\\u2019s another point.\\xa0 Today, though, we\\u2019re going to explore just a little bit about the stories that make up this amazing place.\\xa0\\xa0We also want to put Hawaii into the larger context of the Polynesian islands.\\xa0 It\\u2019s a part of the United States as a state, but that is only\\xa0its\\xa0most recent history.\\xa0 The history of Hawaii is rich\\xa0and old; its language and culture deep, charming and connected to a much larger story.\\xa0 If you go to Hawaii, one of the must do\\u2019s is to participate in a Luau.\\xa0 It might feel like a touristy thing, but it\\u2019s more than that really- it\\u2019s a story.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0The Luau\\xa0started in\\xa01819 when \\u202fKing Kamehameha II\\u202f ended the taboo system that forbade\\xa0men and women from eating together.\\xa0 It\\u2019s a feast.\\xa0 There is always music, food, hula dancing and stories.\\xa0 They might be a family story celebrating a rite of passage, but it can also be the story of the island.\\xa0 Today, we are going to look at the stories of Hawaii:\\xa0a\\xa0few ancient\\xa0myths- a\\xa0true story turned myth,\\xa0but we\\u2019re going\\xa0to end\\xa0with an inspirational true story of a great and inspirational woman-\\xa0Queen\\xa0Lili\'uo-kalani\\xa0. Her\\xa0legacy\\xa0lives and is most definitely\\xa0not a myth\\xa0as we understand that word, but enduring fact.\\xa0
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Sounds like we have a lot to get through\\u2026.\\xa0
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I know- it may\\xa0be too much, but let\\u2019s see how it goes.\\xa0 First,\\xa0let\\u2019s start with the big picture-\\xa0what is Polynesia?\\xa0 We know Hawaii is a Polynesian\\xa0island\\xa0but what is that.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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Well, it\\u2019s certainly not one place- so dispel that myth- pardon the pun- the word poly means many and there are over 1000 islands scattered over 800,000 square miles.\\xa0 What is interesting is that even though there are many different indigenous people that live quite separately on these different islands, there are actually many things they have in common- including their DNA- they share a common origin.\\xa0 When James Cook first landed in Hawaii, one of the things that shocked him was that the language of the Hawaiians shared cognates with languages used in\\xa0 other islands thousands of miles away.\\xa0 He thought he was a discoverer, an explorer, and he was in the sense that he was discovering and exploring what he didn\\u2019t know- but he was not uncovering something formerly unknown or unconnected.\\xa0 There were connections of language, of culture, of religion that were far-reaching.\\xa0 The Polynesian islands of Hawaii makes up a triangle and Hawaii is the top of the Triangle. - Easter Island off the coast of Chile makes up one end of the triangle, and new Zealand is the third point in the triangle- so \\u2013 if you can imagine just a gigantic triangle across the Pacific ocean, that\\u2019s Polynesia. If we look at a globe instead of a map, we can see just\\xa0 how much space this triangle covers.\\xa0 In fact, it\\u2019s actually incredible to think that well before the Vikings and the Europeans were making ships to cross the Atlantic ocean, Polynesians had already developed the technology to travel over thousands of miles of water- and were doing it for thousands of years using the stars and even the oceans currents- that\\u2019s a very interesting story in and of itself, but for another podcast.\\xa0
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Well, Disney cashed in on the story of Polynesia, although I\\u2019m embarrassed to say I haven\\u2019t watched the movie, although I know it\\u2019s popular.\\xa0 I just kind of quit watching cartoons when my girls grew out of them.\\xa0 I\\xa0probably should have watched it before this podcast, but I didn\\u2019t, so I did the second best thing and\\xa0googled\\xa0about it.\\xa0 What I wanted to know was\\xa0\\xa0how well-received\\xa0 the movie version was to people who love the real story\\xa0of Polynesia.\\xa0 And unsurprisingly, I g\\xa0got mixed reviews.\\xa0\\xa0On the plus side, Disney picked a good name for the heroine of their story.\\xa0\\xa0The word \\u201cmoana\\u201d means Ocean.\\xa0 For Hawaiian people- not just Hawaiian people, but we\\u2019ll center our focus on Hawaii, the ocean is\\xa0 not\\xa0 something that divides the world, but something that connects it- which I think is a nice idea.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0So, Moana is a nice choice of a name for your protagonist.\\xa0\\xa0One inaccuracy that annoys people is with the demi-god called Maui.\\xa0 Now, Disney\\u2019s Maui is an orphan- and even though there are 20 something slightly different versions of the Maui story across Polynesia, an orphan is in none of them.\\xa0 .\\xa0 Hawaiian tradition has four Maui brothers.\\xa0 The\\xa0 Maui stories are very important and are one of those links between the islands that lets modern people see how connected these people were\\xa0culturally- as technologically impossible as\\xa0that\\xa0seems.\\xa0\\xa0But another point of annoyance with the movie is that\\xa0Hina\\xa0is missing.\\xa0\\xa0
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Who\\u2019s that?\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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A Goddess- Maui is just a demi-god.\\xa0 But\\xa0Hina\\xa0is different things in different islands, but in all of them she is a god connected to Maui.\\xa0 She is\\xa0The wife or sister\\xa0or even mother\\xa0of Maui, depending on the version of the legend.\\xa0 But\\xa0in all cases, she\\u2019s a powerful female\\xa0deity, why would we want to delete that?\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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HA!\\xa0\\xa0I\\u2019m sure you wouldn\\u2019t have had you been the Disney executive in charge.\\xa0Did you really read that a lot of people are upset she\\u2019s not in the movie, or is that just your opinion?\\xa0
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No, that\\u2019s a real thing\\u2026 but let\\u2019s get to the legend of Maui.\\xa0 There are lots of myths we could tell, some probably more important than the ones we\\u2019re going to tell, but Maui is\\xa0the most recognizable name of Polynesian legends- in part because of the movie, but also because of the island named Maui.\\xa0 First\\xa0of all, the\\xa0Hawaiian\\xa0word\\xa0\\xa0Mo\\u2019olelo\\xa0can be translated\\xa0as legend, story or history-\\xa0which an important point to start with as we talk about myths, legends and histories in general.\\xa0 And it\\u2019s\\xa0interesting to point out\\xa0the distinctions\\xa0that are NOT being made by using the same word for history as you use for myth-\\xa0\\xa0these things intermingle in Hawaiian culture-\\xa0they would definitely agree with Tolkien that myths are true.\\xa0\\xa0And histories may be legends.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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Well, I want to point out that and I\\u2019ll point it out very specifically later in the podcast, but history and myth intermingle in all cultures and with all peoples- we just don\\u2019t highlight that the way the Hawaiian language does.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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I also think it\\u2019s interesting how\\xa0there are protocols about how\\xa0important\\xa0\\xa0stories, histories, legends\\xa0should be told.\\xa0 There were\\xa0specific\\xa0highly skilled\\xa0people trained to remember the tales- for the sole purpose to make sure the stories were kept intact and authentic.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0The Hawaiian\\xa0people, called Kanaka\\xa0Maoli, have\\xa0an incredibly strong oral tradition.\\xa0\\xa0Their language was an oral one for most of its history.\\xa0\\xa0In fact,\\xa0the Hawaiian language\\xa0did not even have a written alphabet until 1826\\xa0when\\xa0Christian missionaries\\xa0created one and then went on to develop the written form of the language.\\xa0\\xa0
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Doing that\\xa0is\\xa0Something that has gotten mixed reviews from historians and cultural critics as time has passed- Print culture as well as missionary influence.\\xa0 Next week\\xa0we\\xa0will introduce\\xa0Chinua\\xa0Achebe and\\xa0Things Fall Apart, I want to get into a little more about the controversy of Christian missionaries and local cultures because in Africa that is a large part of the narrative, but in Hawaii, the Christian influence has been, although checkered at times, more well received by indigenous people, and definitely not the most controversial part of the story we are going to tell today.\\xa0 However,\\xa0we\\u2019re getting ahead of\\xa0ourselves.\\xa0 Let\\u2019s go back in time to Maui.\\xa0
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Okay..one\\xa0version of his story goes like this, one\\xa0day\\xa0Maui realized that people were being held down by the sky.\\xa0 They couldn\\u2019t stand up.\\xa0 The sky had flattened leaves and was keeping plants and trees from growing.\\xa0 People were suffering.\\xa0 He realizes he needs to help.\\xa0 So, he visits a Kahuna, a Hawaiian priest or healer.\\xa0 The Kahuna tattoos Maui with a magical symbol on his forearm giving him great powers.\\xa0 He also went to a\\xa0Kapuna, an elder, and she gave him a drink for her gourd.\\xa0 This made him supernaturally strong and he was able to push the sky above the mountains where it is today.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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At another time, Maui\\u2019s mother,\\xa0Hina\\xa0complains that her kapa cloth\\xa0doesn\\u2019thave\\xa0time to dry because the days are too short, so Maui climbs to the top of the Haleakala volcano and waits at the top for the sun to rise.\\xa0 He uses a. magical lasso made from his sisters hair\\xa0andsnares\\xa0the\\xa0the\\xa0sun\\u2019s rays.\\xa0 The sun agrees to slow its pace across the sky increasing the growing season.\\xa0
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And here\\u2019s another one- probably the most widely known, one day Maui pulls\\xa0p\\xa0the Hawaiian islands by tricking his brothers into paddling their canoes with all of their might to haul up each island.\\xa0 He then went on to hook them using a great and magical fishhook called\\xa0Manaiakalani.\\xa0 The brothers thought they were pulling up massive fish, but really they pulled up all the Hawaiian islands.\\xa0
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These stories are really fun.\\xa0 Lots of them are short.\\xa0 But if you just want to look for some literary stylistic things that are distinctive- you will see that lots of them glorify the hero of the tale, who in\\xa0Polynesian\\xa0cultures\\xa0corresponds to the chief, of course, as these groups are all non-democratic groups led by chiefs.\\xa0 The\\xa0myths\\xa0use a lot of hyperbole and metaphor to enhance his\\xa0attractiveness and his deeds.\\xa0 There is a rich use of personal names- names are very important in these cultures.\\xa0 Natural things like rocks, valleys, even the sun have been modified by the hero and nature is\\xa0anthropomorphized- in another words, is its own character- like the sun.\\xa0 Nature is beautiful and spectacular but engages\\xa0the characters as its own character.\\xa0
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Well,\\xa0there are some things that cross over with the Greek myths we\\u2019re more familiar with, but some that are definitely unique.\\xa0
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For sure.\\xa0\\xa0
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\\xa0Before we leave Maui and the ancient myths, I think we should share the one where he discovers fire.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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Okay,\\xa0 again\\xa0Maui is out fishing one day with his brothers and he sees a very small plum of white smoke.\\xa0 He goes over to see what it is and discovers an hen stamping out and trying to hide the fire.\\xa0 Maui hides and watches the hen start another fire.\\xa0 The next day, the hen goes out to make her fire but sees that Maui isn\\u2019t in the canoe with his brothers, so she doesn\\u2019t make the fire.\\xa0 Maui realizes the hen is on to him, so the next day, he puts a large human-shaped thing in the canoe and tricks the hen into thinking he\\u2019s gone.\\xa0 The hen makes the fire rubbing limbs together.\\xa0 Maui jumps out, grabs the hen by the neck and demands to be taught how to make fire.\\xa0 At first the hen lies to him telling him to rub water plants together, but eventually she shows him how to rub the dry sticks together.\\xa0 Maui, as punishment for lying to him, burns the crest on the top of the bird head- and that is why the adult alae-\\u2018ula or Hawaiian hen has a red crest.\\xa0 There you go.\\xa0
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Well, let\\u2019s transition from ancient myths to more modern ones.\\xa0 And this is where the Hawaiians are on to something by using the same word for myth and history\\xa0and the point I was making earlier.\\xa0\\xa0The next story I want to share is not a myth, but something that actually happened, but over the years, because of how we record history, the events have been exaggerated not too differently than the Maui stories, really.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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So,\\xa0On January\\xa019,\\xa01778, the Hawaiians welcomed a British explorer, Captain James Cook.\\xa0\\xa0He is considered the first European to ever visit the islands, although that\\u2019s not undisputed.\\xa0\\xa0I mentioned him before.\\xa0 He\\u2019s a very famous person in British history during this time period.\\xa0\\xa0.\\xa0 He sailed all over the world up and down the coasts of Canada, three expeditions into the Pacific islands, to Antarctica, ,He was very successful in terms of what he was setting out to do\\xa0and the things he was learning about the world made a huge impact in his home country.\\xa0 He was disciplined with his crew, kept them alive by keeping an eye on their behaviors and their diets, and just this made him\\xa0very successful.\\xa0 But one reason history remembers him so well, is the same reason we remember Florence, Italy\\xa0so well.\\xa0 We talked about this during the\\xa0Machiavelli\\xa0episodes.\\xa0 Cook kept copious records, not just about what happened but what he was learning.\\xa0 He\\xa0recorded\\xa0scientific discoveries, cultural discoveries, language discoveries.\\xa0 Lots of things\\xa0that were new to Europeans, and as I\\u2019ve said before- history belongs to the one who records it.\\xa0 So, since we have so much written by him, he gets to frame a lot of the\\xa0record.\\xa0\\xa0
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\\xa0What we know about that encounter\\xa0was written down eventually\\xa0by both native Hawaiians as well as in the record log of Captain Cook himself.\\xa0 However,\\xa0even though there is\\xa0some\\xa0direct record,\\xa0over the years, the\\xa0narrative\\xa0of the events that took place has\\xa0evolved\\xa0based on people\\u2019s interpretations afterwards,\\xa0and many would argue\\xa0were\\xa0mythologized\\xa0likely inaccurately\\xa0for a variety of different reasons.\\xa0 So,\\xa0in some form or fashion, the\\xa0long and short of it,\\xa0Captain Cook showed\\xa0up and as circumstance would have it, it\\xa0was\\xa0during a holiday event where local islanders\\xa0were celebrating the Polynesian god,\\xa0Lono.\\xa0Lono\\xa0is one of the four gods in Hawaiian mythology- ironically the god of peace and agriculture.\\xa0
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Let me point out the that\\u2019s different than Maui who was a demi-god-.\\xa0\\xa0
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\\xa0In the mythologized version- which was accepted as fact for many years, the locals believed that Captain Cook WAS the god\\xa0Lono\\xa0and treated him like a god because he arrived during this celebration in a sacred bay dedicated to\\xa0Lono.\\xa0 Apparently, the ship was well received and they had a wonderful time with the natives- some of these activities introducing diseases to the island- again another story for another podcast.\\xa0 But they stayed a month before leaving to hunt for the Northwest Passage.\\xa0 The part that historians have come to question over the years is if the locals really think he was a god, or is that just something that has grown out of the story because of cultural misunderstandings of what was going on and what was being said?\\xa0 We know the\\xa0Hawaiians\\xa0were impressed with some of his iron because Cook mentioned in his log they recognized it.\\xa0 He made note of it because they had seen it before which struck him.\\xa0 Is there enough evidence to support the whole god- thing? There is some, but it\\u2019s not clear cut, and that\\u2019s not the end of the story.\\xa0 Captain Cook and his crew leave\\xa0Kealakekua\\xa0Bay, but unfortunately they get into a storm and have to come back because their ship, the Resolution is messed up.\\xa0 This time when they come back into the bay, there\\u2019s a brawl of some sorts for reasons that are not entirely clear.\\xa0 Captain Cook actually was killed in the altercation as well as 30 plus Hawaiians.\\xa0 Now, the part of the original versions that\\xa0 has been questioned over the years as to why Captain Cook was killed.\\xa0 The original story states that the Hawaiians realize he\\u2019s not a god and kill him for that because in the\\xa0Lono\\xa0myth, he\\u2019s not supposed to come back.\\xa0 But honestly, more recent scholarship that reads the\\xa0first hand\\xa0accounts of both Cook and the Hawaiians who later recorded the story, tell a story that is less dramatic and more humanized- maybe even accidental.\\xa0 Of course, what actually happened, we can never know for sure.\\xa0 But Captain Cook\\u2019s name is heavily associated with the history of Hawaii especially as it begins to interact with the Western Colonizing world.\\xa0 In fact, when we end the podcast, reading an introduction to a translation of an Hawaiian ancient text, Captain Cook\\u2019s name and this story is mentioned.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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So, why did the story become fact that the native Hawaiians thought Cook was god.\\xa0
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It\\u2019s interesting, at least for us who are interested in how history is recorded.\\xa0 We believe it because that is how a Hawaiian named\\xa0Kamakau\\xa0wrote this history in 1866.\\xa0\\xa0
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Well, that sounds definitely and clear cut.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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But it isn\\u2019t.\\xa0 Culture is never clear cut.\\xa0 The events happened in 1778-\\xa0that\\u2019s\\xa088\\xa0years previously and\\xa0Kamakau\\xa0wasn\\u2019t a witness.\\xa0 He was recording in written form what had been passed down orally, and what have we just learned from reading the Maui legends, Hawaiians often use hyperbole when describing the chief- in their oral tradition.\\xa0\\xa0 They also use a lot of metaphors.\\xa0\\xa0That\\u2019s cultural.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0If a Hawaiian used the word\\xa0Lono\\xa0to describe Cook later, it\\u2019s possible it was a comparison like what they were thinking when he showed up- not a literal interpretation.\\xa0 Also, as the leaders of the Hawaiians spoke to Cook, isn\\u2019t it likely they used flattery in order get what they wanted.\\xa0\\xa0They may have called him\\xa0Lono, the person who told the story heard it as such, but it wasn\\u2019t because the Chiefs thought that is who they were actually talking to.\\xa0\\xa0We know for a fact that Cook gave them a knife during their first meeting.\\xa0 So, there are many possible explanations as to the encounter.\\xa0\\xa0It\\u2019s just one of the many problems historians have- and so that\\u2019s why I say, making the word myth and history the same, in some sense, is likely a smart thing to do.\\xa0 That way, everyone knows, that some things are potentially questionable or at least open to multiple interpretations.\\xa0
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Well, I want to end with a story that is very\\xa0very\\xa0documented about a real person- and this person history\\xa0inarguably\\xa0is a great American hero- although, she was never American-at least not by choice.\\xa0\\xa0Queen\\xa0Lili\\u2018uokalani,\\xa0\\xa0
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As a little girl they called her Lydia.\\xa0 She was\\xa0born on September 2, 1838, attended missionary schools and was highly\\xa0highly\\xa0educated- notice\\xa0also\\xa0that is only 60 years after Cook shows up in Hawaii for the first time.\\xa0 That is not long.\\xa0
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No, it isn\\u2019t.\\xa0 HOW she became the Queen of Hawaii\\xa0is interesting in itself-\\xa0genealogy\\xa0and names are such an important part of Hawaiian culture, but that is\\xa0a story for another day.\\xa0 Long story short, she\\xa0became queen after her brother died and she was the heir apparent.\\xa0 This again will show you how\\xa0inglorious\\xa0history is.\\xa0 Hawaii, after being discovered by Western people, quickly became a popular spot\\xa0in the Pacific.\\xa0 It was geographically in the middle of the\\xa0Pacific\\xa0ocean.\\xa0 The weather was perfect.\\xa0\\xa0Growing conditions were perfect.\\xa0\\xa0So, obviously financial interests, specifically American financial interests saw an opportunity to grow sugar cane, among other things.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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Long story short, and this happened not too long\\xa0before Queen\\xa0Queen\\xa0Lili\\u2018uokalani\\xa0began her reign,\\xa0Her brother\\xa0King David Kalakaua\\xa0signed what\\xa0today\\xa0we\\xa0\\u201cthe Bayonet\\xa0Constitution\\u201d which basically limited the power of the monarchy and disenfranchised the native population.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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Why would he do that?\\xa0
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He did it because the businessmen on the island literally forced him to at gun point.\\xa0 That\\u2019s why it\\u2019s called the Bayonet Constitution.\\xa0 This constitution linked voting rights to land ownership which cut out local people\\xa0who\\xa0did\\u2019t\\xa0own land, and allowed non-native immigrants to vote\\xa0just because they did.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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When Queen\\xa0Liluokalani\\xa0became queen, her first order of business was to amend the\\xa0bogus\\xa0constitution, restore her own power\\xa0and re-enfranchise the native Hawaiians.\\xa0 Local businessmen, afraid of the influence of the queen and how it would affect business, basically conspired with the American media/technology industries of their day to use their influence to run a dis-information campaign about what was happening in Hawaii.\\xa0 They villainized her, got the House of Representatives\\xa0in the United States\\xa0to get involved, and were able to bring in the US Marines to force\\xa0Queen\\xa0Lili\\u2018uokalani\\xa0to surrender the Hawaiian Kingdom to the United States in 1893.\\xa0 Ironically, the person who was proclaimed the president of the Republic of Hawaii was a man by the name of Sanford B. Dole- yes, as in Dole Pineapples- he was the son of the most influential businessman on the island.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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It\\u2019s a terrible story.\\xa0 Queen\\xa0Liluokalani\\xa0was imprisoned for 8 months at the Iolani Palace which you can visit to this day.\\xa0\\xa0Those were dark days for her and she really had no assurances she would be released.\\xa0 She was and\\xa0actually went to Washington DC to advocate for her people and for herself.\\xa0 She met with President Cleveland, held a reception for reporters and members of congress\\xa0and their families.\\xa0 She also attended the inauguration of President McKinley and then made a formal appeal to\\xa0the US Government. Let\\u2019s read it:\\xa0
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I declare such treaty to be an act of wrong toward the native and part-native people of Hawaii, an invasion of the rights of the ruling chiefs, in violation of international rights both toward my people and toward friendly nations with whom they have made treaties, the perpetuation of the fraud whereby the constitutional government was overthrown, and finally an act of gross injustice to me.\\xa0
Because, the official protests made by me on the 17th day of January, 1893, to the so-called provisional government was signed by me and received by said government with the assurance that the case was referred to the United States of America for arbitration.\\xa0
Because, that protest and my communications to the United States government immediately thereafter expressly declare that I yielded my authority to the forces of the United States, in order to avoid bloodshed and because I recognized the futility of a conflict with so formidable a power.\\xa0
Because, the President of the United States, the Secretary of State and an envoy commissioned by them reported in official documents that my government was unlawfully coerced by the forces, diplomatic and naval, of the United States, and that I was at the date of their investigations the constitutional ruler of my people.\\xa0
Therefore, I, Liliuokalani of Hawaii, do hereby call upon the President of that nation to whom alone I yielded my property and my authority, to withdraw said treaty (ceding said lands) from further consideration. I ask the honorable Senate of the United States to decline to ratify said treaty, and I implore the people of this great and good\\u202f nation, from whom my ancestors learned the Christian religion, to sustain their representatives in such acts of justice and equity as may be in accord with the principles of their fathers. And to the Almighty Ruler of the universe, to Him Who\\xa0judgeth\\xa0righteously, I commit my cause.\\xa0
Done at Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America, this seventeenth day of June, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-seven.\\xa0
(Signed)\\xa0LILIUOKALANI.\\xa0
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Well, it just wasn\\u2019t ever going to happen.\\xa0 All of world history, not just American history, world history is the story of these kinds of conflicts.\\xa0 In 1898, William McKinley signed into law a joint resolution of Congress to annex Hawaii to the United States, although, the legality of doing something like this is obviously disputed to this day.\\xa0 This was just a few weeks before Queen Liliuokalani turned 60 years old.\\xa0 She would never be queen again.\\xa0\\xa0On Queen Liliuokalani\\u2019s 73rd\\xa0birthday, she gave a birthday present to her people.\\xa0 She had her trustees set aside a piece of property to create the Liliuokalani Garden, then when she died, in her will she created an estate to provide for orphan children of\\xa0Hawaiian\\xa0blood.\\xa0 It\\u2019s since been amended to include other races of children as well.\\xa0 But her legacy lives through the ongoing Liliuokalani trust which is still active today\\xa0supporting orphans.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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Her story\\xa0is\\xa0so intermingled with the story of Hawaii which is shocking\\xa0looking back,\\xa0but it\\u2019s also encouraging\\xa0on a personal level.\\xa0 She didn\\u2019t win her battle, but she\\xa0never stopped advocating for her people- the ones she loved.\\xa0 In spite of all that was so discouraging, losing her country- she still made\\xa0her life count\\xa0in a significant way\\xa0and has improved the lives of many years after her death.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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She also left an important literary legacy- and that\\u2019s the last thing I want to talk about.\\xa0 While she was locked up imprisoned she used her time to\\xa0do\\xa0two things:\\xa0first she made a quilt- an important\\xa0Hawaiian\\xa0tradition- but in her case,\\xa0besides just a piece of art,\\xa0she was making an important political document.\\xa0 She wanted\\xa0to document the overthrow of her government.\\xa0\\xa0You can see the quilt today in the Bishop Museum in Honolulu.\\xa0\\xa0
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And of course, in 1894, when the Hawaiian flag came down and the American flag went up, many\\xa0many\\xa0people began making quilts out of the Hawaiian flag, as a form of protest.\\xa0 Often they would hide them under their bed, but they had them.\\xa0 They wanted to remember the monarchy.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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The second thing that Queen Liliuokalani did while locked away was to translate a sacred\\xa0Hawaiian\\xa0text- called the\\xa0Kumulipo.\\xa0 It\\u2019s a creation chant.\\xa0 She transcribed over 16 eras that incorporate the emergence of sea creatures, insects, land plants, animals and eventually humans.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0
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We\\u2019ll end the episode today by reading the preface to the chant\\u2026allowing Queen Liliuokalani to speak directly to use.\\xa0 The chant itself reads like a\\xa0genealogy\\xa0and would be difficult to read, but you can look at it online.\\xa0 Her translation\\xa0is also an important historical document.\\xa0\\xa0Let\\u2019s read her introduction, remember, she is writing this while imprisoned.\\xa0\\xa0
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THERE are several reasons for the publication of this work, the translation of which pleasantly employed me while imprisoned by the present rulers of Hawaii. It will be to my friends a souvenir of that part of my own life, and possibly it may also be of value to genealogists and scientific men of a few societies to which a copy will be forwarded. The folk-lore or traditions of an aboriginal people have of late years been considered of inestimable value; language itself changes, and there are terms and allusions herein to the natural history of Hawaii, which might be forgotten in future years without some such history as this to preserve them to posterity. Further, it is the special property of the latest ruling family of the Hawaiian Islands, being nothing less than the genealogy in remote times of the late King Kalakaua,--who had it printed in the original Hawaiian language,--and myself.\\xa0
This is the very chant which was sung by\\xa0Puou, the High Priest of our ancient worship, to Captain Cook whom they had surnamed\\xa0Lono, one of the four chief gods, dwelling high in the heavens, but at times appearing on the earth. This was the cause of the deification of Captain Cook under that name, and of the offerings to him made at the temple or Heiau at\\xa0Hikiau, Kealakekua, where this song was rendered.\\xa0
Captain Cook\'s appearance was regarded by our people then as a confirmation of their own traditions. For it was prophesied by priests at the time of the death of Ka-I-i-mamao\\xa0that he,\\xa0Lono, would return anew from the sea in a Spanish man-of-war or\\xa0Auwaalalua. To the great navigator they accordingly gave a welcome with the name of\\xa0Lono.\\xa0
She goes on to list the\\xa0geneology\\xa0of the monarchy and makes historical connections that consist of a lot of names, we might get lost in if I read them, but I want to pick back up her words at the end where she says this\\u2026\\xa0
It will be seen, therefore, that as connecting the earlier kings of ancient history with the monarchs latest upon the throne this chant is a contribution to the history of the Hawaiian Islands, and as it is the only record of its kind in existence it seemed to me worthy of preservation in convenient form.\\xa0
I have endeavored to give the definition of each name as far as it came within my knowledge of words, but in some cases this could not be done because the true signification has been lost. The ancient Hawaiians were astronomers, and the terms used appertained to the heavens, the stars, terrestrial science, and the gods. Curious students will notice in this chant analogies between its accounts of the creation and that given by modern science or Sacred Scripture. As with other religions, our ancient people recognized an all-powerful evil spirit:\\xa0Mea\\xa0was the King of\\xa0Milu\\xa0as Satan is of the infernal regions, or hell.\\xa0
I hope that to some interested in all that pertains to Hawaii, this may give one-half the pleasure which it gave to me in the translation and preparation of the manuscript.\\xa0
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And that is our hope with this podcast as well.\\xa0 We hope we\\u2019ve introduced you to just a small part of the long and complex story of a wonderful people \\u2013 the Hawaiian people- a people that greet and send off everyone they meet with aloha- a way of life where you share your essence of love and friendship at every coming and going.\\xa0 Oh, and if you recognize the song that we\\u2019re playing on at the beginning and at the end, it was written by Queen\\xa0Liliuakalani\\xa0herself, and even Elvis Presley has recorded it.\\xa0
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This week instead of saying peace out- we say aloha!\\xa0
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