Imagine that you are a child and have been raised to be royal. You become educated and will eventually become Queen after your brother’s death. When you ascend to the throne, you have to deal with a new constitution that gives you limited power and takes away support from the people native to your area. Your monarchy is taken away from you.
Would you lay down or would you continue to fight to keep your lands as they were? If you are Queen Lili’uokalani of Hawaii, you will use your voice until you die to try and give the land back to its people.
Queen Lili’uokalani was born Lydia Lili Kamaka'eha in 1838. She was born to a family of advisors to the King. Per Lili’uokalani, “Immediately after my birth, I was taken to the house of another chief, by whom I was adopted. It is not easy to explain to those alien to our national life, but it seems perfectly natural to us.” She became a part of the Royal Court of King Kamehameha the Fourth.
She was educated at an English language school and showed early on that she was incredibly talented in music. Lili’uokalani said, “To compose was as natural to me as to breath.”
The song, “Aloha Oe (Farewell To Thee)”, has become one of her most well known songs and has been heard in movies such as Blue Hawaii (1961) and Lilo and Stitch (2002). The State of Hawaii Archives has a signed copy of the song that can be viewed at their digital archives
Throughout her life, she would be a philanthropist and work on causes close to her heart, like education and Hawaiian rights and culture. In her 20s, she raised money for the Queen’s hospital which opened in 1860.
In 1862, she married John Dominis, a white American that was raised in Honolulu and attended school with Lili’uokalani. While they did not have children of their own, she adopted two children as was the Hawaiian custom. She also adopted John’s biological child, whom he had fathered with one of her servants. He would die seven months into her reign as Queen.
Her brother, David Kalakaua, became the King of Hawaii in 1877 and Lili’uokalani was made his heir apparent.
In 1887, King Kalakaua was forced to sign a new constitution that was referred to as the “Bayonet Constitution." He was pressured to do so by the Honolulu Rifles, a majority white militia. This weakened the monarchy as it gave more rights to settlers and foreigners. It also took away native Hawaiian’s right to vote unless they were landowners, and met certain income and literacy levels.
After her brother’s sudden death in 1891, Liliʻuokalani became Queen. While in power, she attempted to overthrow this new constitution and restore power to the monarchy and rights to her people.
While she had support of the native Hawaiians, the white businessmen and politicians who had benefited from the new constitution, did not support this and smear campaign was spread about her. In January of 1893, a battalion of United States Marines overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom within forty-eight hours of setting foot in Honolulu. A provisional government was put it place, run by a U.S. businessman.
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Not one to sit down and take things, Queen Lili’uokalani traveled to the U.S. where she appealed directly to the President and Congress to restore her throne. “I would undertake anything for the benefit of my people. It is for them that I would give my last drop of blood,” she said. Even though President Grover Cleveland agreed that she should be restored to the throne, Congress disagreed.
On the 4th of July, 1894, Lili’uokalani was placed under house arrest for eight months. To help protest what had happened to her and Hawaii, she wrote an autobiography called Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, by Lili'uokalani, Queen of Hawaii.
When she passed away on the 11th of November, 1917, she gave away all her money to the destitute children of Hawaii. Even in death, she wanted to help her people.
In 1993, the U.S. Congress issued an apology acknowledging that the overthrow of Queen Liliokalani had been illegal.
