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Uluhaimalama

Photo of plaque from "Reviving Queen's Garden Uluhaimalama," Gordon Y. K. Pang, October 11, 2009, Honolulu Advertiser.  

Queen's Protest Resown

Roots, tears nurture garden centennial

 

By Mark Matsunaga,  October 23, 1994

Advertiser Staff Writer  

 

About 150 people gathered at an aging graveyard in Pauoa yesterday to rededicate a garden that Queen Liliu'okalani and her supporters planted a century ago as a symbol of defiance and hope.

 

In solemn ceremonies, two ohia lehua saplings - one red, one yellow - and a kukui tree were planted and a bronze plaque dedicated at the garden the queen named Uluhaimalama.  It lies at the foot of Puowaina (Punchbowl), on the bank of Pauoa Stream. 

 

Participants yesterday included descendants of the 17 loyalists who, on Oct. 11, 1894, met at the spot to plant trees and shrubs to express their support for the queen, who had been deposed by a group of foreign businessmen the year before.

 

Then, it was a low-key gesture, according to organizers of yesterday's centennnial.  Fearing counter-revolution, the Republic of Hawaii had banned large gatherings, and the garden group was watched by government agents.  The queen herself did not attend, but had led a small group there the night before to plant a bed of flowers that spelled out Uluhaimalama.  

 

Also present yesterday were representatives of several royal orders and the Royal Hawaiian Band.  Centennial co-chairman Jeffrey Aholo Apaka said that a century ago, the band's 14 Hawaiian members quit rather than sign the republic's loyalty oath.

 

Msgr. Charles Kekumano gave the invocation yesterday, saying the garden is "a symbol of growth" for Hawaiians.  The theme was reiterated many times yesterday.  

 

The band played Hawaii Pono'i. Apaka and Clarence F.T. Ching, co-chairmen of the centennial, and Quentin Kawananakoa  - great-grandson of David Kawananakoa - Liliu'okalani's nephew and one of the original 17 participants, took turns telling of the 1894 planting.  

 

Don Ho sang Kaulana Na Pua, the famolus "stone-eating" song of protest against the overthrow.  Aulani Ahmad and Leo Anderson Akana danced and narrated as he sang.  People in the audience dabbed away tears. Ching and Royal Hawaiian Bandmaster Aaron Mahi placed a symbolic stone on a mound of dirt.  

 

Descendants of the 1894 participants turned some soil in ceremonial planting of the trees, and then gathered at a stone pedestal built by Eric Chun of Nuuanu and Ian Valeza.  Atop the pedestal, covered with bright red and yellow muslin, was a bronze plaque describing the garden and its significance.         

 

The plaque, designed by Chun, a 23-year-old University of Hawaii art student, and his mother Peggy, is a copy of the one that will be permanently installed. The copy will be shown at schools, said the centennial committee. [Uncle Ku (Clarence Ching) says - the plaque is it. There is no copy.]

 

Before the plaque was unveiled, the Royal Hawaiian Band played He Aloha O Ka Haku, "The Queen's Prayer," written by Liliu'okalani in 1895, while she was imprisoned in Iolani Palace.  

.

As the song's last verse wafted across the slope, a soft rain - kilihune - began falling.   

 

The Rev. Abraham Akaka, pastor emeritus of Kawaiahao Church, called it a sign that "the queen is with us today."

 

Akaka told the throng.  "My father was born 40 yards from where you are sitting.  He was 19 years old when Uluhaimalama was begun.  I like to think he was on the edge of the stream, standing there, looking at what was happening.  [ku says - and he further described his father - smiling.]

 

Ching, a former Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee born in a house overlooking the cemetery, said he began researching thehistory of Uluhaimalama 12 or 13 years ago.  He said the garden is often mistakenly identified as the spot near Kuakini Medical Center that's now called Liliu'okalani Garden, a city park.

 

But historical accounts and records show the planting was at the Pauoa site. 

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