2009-10-15 News

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The Tragic Tale of Hawaii's Princess Ka'iulani

As we celebrate the princess's birthday, it's important to remember her heartbreaking story

October 15, 2009

"I must have been born under an unlucky star, as I seem to have my life planned out for me in such a way that I cannot alter it," wrote Princess Victoria Ka'iulani Kalaninuiahilapalapa Kawekiu i Lunalilo Cleghorn in 1897, from a tiny island in the English Channel just 12 miles off the coast of Normandy—as far as can be imagined from Oahu, the Princess's island of birth.

This week, we celebrate Princess Ka'iulani's birthday on October 16. On Maui, festivities include an Upcountry festival (see This Week's Picks for details). On Oahu, the new film Barbarian Princess will debut, part of the Hawaii International Film Festival.

The film's title has sparked controversy. It's a term that was coined by the 19th-century American press, which, under the heavy influence of pro-annexationists, launched a smear campaign against Ka'iulani as she prepared to plead for the reinstatement of her land's sovereign rule to the U.S. Senate and then-President Grover Cleveland. (To be fair, journalists and cartoonists of the day could not have easily anticipated the poise and enchantment of Ka'iulani, and quickly amended their positions.)

Though her life ended in tragedy, Ka'iulani led an enchanted youth. Wanting for nothing, the royal child had free reign of the lush 'Ainahau estate. As interesting as she was beautiful, Ka'iulani garnered the deep friendship of author Robert Louis Stevenson—a fast friend of then-King David Kalakaua, and thusly all the royal family—who in 1889 wrote the following:

Written in April to Ka'iulani, in the April of her age, and at Waikiki, within easy walk of Ka'iulani's Banyan. When she comes to my land and her fathers, and the rain beats upon the window (as I fear it will), let her look at this page—it will be like a weed, gathered and pressed at home, and she will remember her islands and the shadow of the mighty tree, and she will hear the peacock's screaming in the dusk and the wind blowing in the palms, and she will think of her father sitting there alone.

Though Stevenson's words eerily foreshadow Ka'iulani's own end, it was Miriam's final words to her daughter—as she lay mysteriously ailing, at the very brink of her life—that closed with ominous shadow the only sunny chapter in Ka'iulani's tragic tale: "You will go far away from your land and your people and be gone a very long time. You will never marry and you will never rule Hawaii."

These things indeed came to pass, and at 13 the young princess traveled far—sent off for private education at Great Harrowden Hall in Northhamptonshire, England. There, as Ka'iulani herself eloquently explains in a statement made to the English press before traveling to Washington D.C., to plea before Congress, she was "educated privately and fitted to the position [of queen] which by the constitution of Hawai'i, I was to inherit."

Yet at the time of her dark musings, Ka'iulani was merely a citizen of the Republic of Hawaii and four years had passed since the overthrow of her aunt, Constitutional Queen of Hawaii, Lili'uokalani.

Ka'iulani, distraught, wrought her own demise. Despite protests from her friends who were along on an outing on the Big Island's Parker Ranch, she took off on her own, deep into a rainstorm, a rebel on horseback.

Immediately taking ill, she was rushed home to 'Ainahau, where, on March 6 1899, little more than a year after Hawaii's annexation to the United States, she died. Her father said, "she died of rheumatism of the heart," though popular myth holds (as with many of the late monarchs of the day) that her life was ended by a broken heart.

Legends also has it that at the precise moment of her passing, her beloved peacocks, which famously roamed her home estate, erupted into such obstinate peals that Gov. Cleghorn ordered them shot—a final dark note to the melancholy song of Hawaii's last princess. Anu Yagi, Maui Time Weekly

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Tags: Maui History

The Tragic Tale of Hawaii's Princess Ka'iulani
October 16, 2009 | 06:31 PM

I thank Anuhea Yagi for writing about Princess Ka'iulani. Although the facts in the article are true, I hope in future articles about her life, that we also hear about her drive and commitment to set the record straight in America. Ka'iulani was not the weak withering flower as she has often been thought of. Ka‘iulani’s childhood was comprised of swimming far out into the breakers of Waikiki, surfing for hours on end, and studying the ancient martial arts of Lua.
Re: "(To be fair, journalists and cartoonists of the day could not have easily anticipated the poise and enchantment of Ka'iulani)", The journalists were describing Hawaiian royals as "barbarians" and "ignorant children unable to rule themselves". Where do you suppose this information came from - it did come from somewhere. I don't believe in being fair to people who print or supply, information that is libel. I believe it's important to speak of Ka'iulani's achievement loudly and proudly. She achieved a great thing. By traveling to America and facing these lies head on, she forever changed the world's view of the Hawaiian people. She wasn't strong enough at the end, however, to take on these arrogant men who helped themselves to her future.
More information about Ka'iulani: www.thekaiulaniproject.com
Aloha nui, Jennifer

Jennifer Fahrni, The Princess Ka'iulani Project
barbarian princess
October 18, 2009 | 01:56 AM

It is ironical that this title should create such outrage , after all wasnt this name given to her by the American press at the time .( San Francisco Press ).
All Mark Forby ( director ) has done is written the usual adaptation of history for the purposes of Hollywood.
As he has included a love interest , perhaps the title could be changed to "Pineapple Princess".
Here in England we dont seem to be bothered when American stars play Robin Hood or Rob Roy.
As I was in this film, playing the butler to President Cleavland , which was shot at Holkham Hall in Norfolk, I could tell that Forby was helming a film that the critics would pounce on.
However , I hope that it brings more tourists to this most beautiful of islands , which I have visited.
Aloha

Nick Shaw
The Tragic Tale of Hawaii's Princess Ka'iulani
October 21, 2009 | 09:12 AM

By the way, the only libel I refer to was committed in 1893.

Jennifer Fahrni
Ka'iulani's Demise
October 25, 2009 | 07:37 PM

I would like to offer a counterpoint to the comment made by Anuhea Yagi that Princess Ka'iulani "wrought her own demise". Once again this seems a variety of "blaming the victim"; it is thought by most Ka'iulani scholars that the Princess suffered from thyroid disease (untreatable in the 1890s), and this produced the cardiac storm that ultimately killed her (the course of the disease worsened by years of unrelenting stress - certainly a serious danger for thyroid patients). While the "ride in the rain" has taken on huge proportions for the sake of dramatic story-telling, there are other versions of how she came by her last illness; most likely it was cumulative - she also took a chill while swimming on the Big Island during her attendance at the Parker wedding. The "rebel ride" was only one such outing...Ka'iulani did a lot of riding during that same time, some of which included leaping pig holes with her fellow equestrians. She was an athletic and energetic woman by nature, and perhaps that worked against her thanks to the underlying disease affecting her heart. But to say she caused her own demise is far too extreme. I agree with Jennifer Fahrni - It really is time to shed some of the negative mythology that has made Ka'iulani's life story a depressing rather than uplifting account: while it is a tragedy her life was short, it is a blessing that she lived at all and did so many positive and inspiring things during that brief span.

M Reid
The Tragic Tale of Hawaii's Princess Ka'iulani
December 14, 2009 | 04:57 AM

Great for my school prodject! (:

Brooke D.

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