WHAT WILL YOU DO?

DONʻT MISS IT THIS SATURDAY

STANDING TALL

FREE HAWAI`I TV
THE FREE HAWAI`I BROADCASTING NETWORK
 
"DID HAWAI`IʻS QUEEN ABDICATE OR NOT?"

 

Some Say Yes & Some Say No.

But What About That Document She Signed?

It All Comes Down To What She Actually Did & Did Not Do.

Confused? Watch This As We Piece It All Together With The Answer.
 

HAPPENING MONDAY - DONʻT MISS IT

 

NEVER FORGET

WHAT WILL YOU DO?

LILI`UOKALANIʻS ROYAL STANDARD TO BE RETURNED TO HAWAI`I

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honolulu Civil Beat - March 19, 2023 - By Denby Fawcett

State Archivist Adam Jansen is flying to New York later this month to bring home to Hawaii items from Bonhams auction house related to the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani.

They include Liliuokalani’s Royal Standard, the queen’s personal flag that flew over her Washington Place home in Honolulu on Jan. 17, 1893, the day she was overthrown.

According to the queen’s diary, the day after she was deposed, she visited the royal mausoleum and later traveled by carriage to her cottage at Waikiki to take a swim, trying to calm herself from the enormity of what had happened.

When she returned to Washington Place, she received a note from the provisional government ordering her to permanently take down her personal flag, which greatly distressed her because she had understood the new government would allow Hawaii’s royal flags to continue to fly.

Jansen, who will travel to New York on March 27, said he feels an enormous responsibility as the courier of Liliuokalani’s Royal Standard, which will remain beside him as carry-on luggage on the plane home from New York to Honolulu.

“I will be treating the queen’s personal flag as representing the queen herself. It has mana. The flag is an important piece of the story of Hawaii coming back to the people after more than a century,” said Jansen.

He will also be bringing back the personal letters and documents of Col. John Soper, who was in charge of the military troops that amassed, banding together to threaten violence if the queen did not step down peacefully.

The estate of Abigail Kinoiki Kekaulike Kawananakoa and Damon Estate heiress and philanthropist Brendan Damon Ethington have each donated $30,000 for a total of $60,000 to prevent the historically valuable materials from ending up in the hands of private collectors.

Bonhams had initially intended to sell the property in an online auction, but the London-based company stopped that plan after the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office sent a letter saying the items rightfully belonged to the state.

However, Honolulu sword and antiques dealer Robert Benson — the owner of the property that had commissioned Bonhams auction house to sell the items — refused to relinquish the documents and the flag.

He had purchased them from Soper’s descendants eight years ago in San Francisco.

Benson and his wife, Rita, said they were glad worthy parties had purchased the items.

“We were their caretakers for a while and are very happy the pieces are going to good homes,” they said Saturday in an email.

Attorney Jim Wright successfully negotiated with Benson to buy the Soper documents and the Royal Standard. Ethington then agreed to pay half of the price.

Wright is the trustee of Kawananakoa’s revocable living trust.

Both parties agreed to subsequently donate the items to the state.

Alm said Kawananakoa’s estate became involved because “the princess hated seeing treasures of Hawaiian history put up for sale online.”

Kawananakoa, who died in December, held no formal title, but her lineage included the royal family that long ruled the islands.

Alm said it drove her crazy to see artifacts and documents important to understanding Hawaii’s history locked up in private collections with no public access.

“She wanted people to have the opportunity to live and breathe history,” he said.

Benson, the collector who owned the flag and Soper’s papers for eight years, said he was well aware of their historic value. 

He told me in a phone conversation in October that he had tried many times to get the state archives interested in buying them and had brought them to the attention of Kamehameha Schools, but there were no takers.

“Robert Benson is the person who preserved and protected the flag and documents. We have them today because of him,” said attorney Jim Wright.

The state archivist has said the queen’s Royal Standard shouldn’t be used as a “war trophy.”

That was what happened after the overthrow when Soper took the queen’s flag as his personal property.

Soper was the Honolulu businessman Sanford Dole selected to lead the armed troops in the overthrow. After the Hawaiian queen stepped down, Dole made Soper the commander-in-chief of the military forces of the provisional government of Hawaii.

Soper later served as the top military leader in the Republic of Hawaii and through the first decade of the Territory of Hawaii. Hawaii became a state in 1959.

Jansen said Soper’s writings are enormously valuable and will provide scholars and others new insights from the top military leader of the overthrow and the opportunity to read in his own handwriting his attempts to justify the dethronement of a sovereign monarch.

“I am just glad I was able to help the archives get the documents,” said Ethington, whose great-grandfather Samuel Mills Damon was finance minister in King David Kalakaua’s Cabinet. He did not participate in the overthrow but was made vice president and later finance minister of the provisional government that followed.

Ethington said as a history major at Yale she became aware of the importance of primary documents to students and scholarly researchers.

“There is nothing better than the firsthand documents of the times. They should be protected and available to the public, not in private collections. How will we know what happened if we don’t have access to the actual writing of the people who were there?” she said in an interview.

Jansen said once the documents are returned the public will have multiple ways to see them both at the archives and in digitized form on the internet, with hard copies of the documents to be placed in Iolani Palace.

Alm said he hopes Liliuokalani’s flag can be returned to Washington Place since it was originally taken from there.

But Jansen said that will have to be part of an ongoing discussion because the queen’s former residence lacks the preservation capability of a museum.

Jansen said he hopes the return of the queen’s personal flag will make history resonate for the people of Hawaii in a way it might not have before.

“It is not just the piece of cloth but who owned it, what it signified. It can never be duplicated,” he said.

SHE SEES EVERYTHING

WILL YOU?

QUEEN LILI`UOKALANI - SEPTEMBER 2,1838 - NOVEMBER 11,1917

 

FREE HAWAI`I TV
THE FREE HAWAI`I BROADCASTING NETWORK
 
"WILL BIDEN INK THE DEAL WITH LILI`UOKALANI?"

Itʻs Been Sitting There Waiting For His Signature.

All He Has To Do Is Pick Up A Pen & Sign It.

Will He Do That Or Ignore It Like 21 Other US Presidents?

Watch This To Find Out What It Is & What It Would Do.

 

Then Share This Video Today With Your Family & Everyone You Know.

 QUEEN LILI`UOKALANI - SEPTEMBER 2, 1838 - NOVEMBER 11, 1917

 

WHO ARE YOU WITH?

FREE HAWAI`I TV
THE FREE HAWAI`I BROADCASTING NETWORK
 
"IMPORTANT MESSAGE ON THE QUEENʻS BIRTHDAY"

Itʻs Queen Lili`uokalaniʻs 182nd Birthday.

To Mark It, Something Important Starts Today.

Itʻs Something Thatʻs Going To Go Around The World.

Watch This To See What It Is & Why It Will Be Celebrated All Year Long.

Then Share This Video Today With Your Family & Everyone You Know.

BE A PART OF HISTORY THIS THURSDAY IN HONOLULU

NEXT THURSDAY IN HONOLULU

DONʻT MISS THIS ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 16TH IN HONOLULU

SMITHSONIAN SHINES LIGHT ON HAWAIIAN KINGDOM QUEENS

Colorlines.com - March 18, 2019


The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s Learning Together program announced in an emailed statement last week that, as part of Women’s History Month, it will share teaching materials on two women who were critical to the history of the Hawaiian Kingdom. 

The Center’s Learning Lab, an online resource for educators, includes a wide range of content focusing on Queen Kapi‘olani (1834-1899) and Queen Liliʻuokalani (1838-1917)—two of the most important leaders in a rich native culture that existed long before the establishment of the United States.

The archival objects include a personal, recreational wa‘a (vah-ah), or canoe, that Queen Kapi‘olani gave the Smithsonian as a gift of goodwill from the Hawaiian Kingdom to the United States. The Learning Together website also features a short video that explores some of the secrets of the canoe—which at 231 years old is the oldest known Hawaiian canoe in any museum, anywhere in the world.


Those who visit the site will learn that almost 200 years* before Hawai‘i became the 50th state, women played a powerful role in the kingdom’s rich culture. For example, Queen Kapi‘olani was an influential philanthropist who advocated for the health of women in Hawai‘i. She became an ambassador of the Kingdom, traveling across the Pacific Ocean and the United States for the first White House state dinner in 1874. She also established the Kapi‘olani Maternity Home on the island of O‘ahu, where mothers could receive support and care for themselves and their children.

Queen Liliʻuokalani was the last queen regent of the Hawaiian Kingdom before the government was overthrown by the United States in 1893. Her love for her country and citizens led her to fight for their equal rights, land and restoration of the Kingdom many years after the Hawaiian government was overthrown. A gifted writer, composer and musician, she created many popular works, including the famous song “Aloha Oe,” which she wrote while under house arrest for her attempts to reinstate the Hawaiian Kingdom.

NEVER FORGET - 
THE HAWAIIAN KINGDOM STILL EXISTS