Lā 1 (Paris, France): Nā ʻŌpio Hawaiʻi ʻImi Naʻauao

Aloha mai kākou mai Palisa (Paris)!

Between 1880 and 1892, 18 Hawaiians participated in the Hawaiian Youths Abroad program in six different countries around the world: Italy, Scotland, England, China, Japan, and the United States. The 17 young men and 1 young woman were selected by King Kalākaua to become future leaders of an independent and progressive nation, the Hawaiian Kingdom.

“But just as I have said, there is but one alternative left us for saving our country, and that to have Hawaiian youths educated abroad.” – Joseph Nawahī, April 1891

The Hawaiian Youths Abroad program was embedded in the Hawaiian Kingdom Foreign Affairs office, and was designed as both an educational and diplomatic program to train future leaders to serve in core government functions. The program’s very creation, design, and eventual demise, are demonstrative of the social and political conditions and concerns of the time. The quote above by Joseph Nawahī was from a Department of Health meeting at Kalaupapa in 1891 where Nawahī was addressing the leprosy crisis in Hawaiʻi and remarked on the remarkable progress of one of the Hawaiian Youths Abroad scholars, Matthew Makalua, studying medicine in England and earning many awards and prizes for his work. His studies and progress inspired the Hawaiian Kingdom Department of Health to begin conversations on starting a medical college in the Hawaiian Kingdom. This is just one of the many stories that beset the Hawaiian Kingdom to take drastic measures, including sending future leaders around the world for education and diplomacy to protect our country.

With a similar intent, the 2018 Hawaiian Youths Abroad  program provides similar and appropriate points of examination by exploring both the Hawaiian Kingdom educational prowess of the the 19th century while critically examining the illegal attempts that have attempted to exterminate such progress. Native Hawaiian Student Services (NHSS) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa seeks to restore the Hawaiian Youths Abroad program in Summer 2018, after a 126-year hiatus. Mahalo to Hawaiʻinuiākea and Kamehameha Schools for significant  contributions to help make this trip possible.

Summer 2018: Paris & London

This summer, a group of 17 are traveling to Paris and London between July 11 and 24 to retrace our aliʻi huakaʻi and diplomatic huakaʻi to these places in the 19th century. Our undergraduate students are each studying one of these aliʻi or Hawaiian diplomats, including Timoteo Haʻalilio in 1842-1844, Alexander Liholiho (KIV) and Lot Kapuaiwa (KV) in 1849 and 1850, Kalākaua in the 1870s, Bernice Pauahi (Bishop) in 1875-1876, the 3 Hawaiian Youths Abroad who studied in England, Matthew Makalua, Abraham Piʻianaiʻa, and Joseph Kamauoha in the 1880s, Queen Emma, and Princess Kaiʻulani for schooling in the 1890s. We are visiting different archives as well as different locations around the two cities that were visited by these aliʻi and diplomats.

The group includes 10 undergraduate students and 3 doctoral students from UH Mānoa as well as 4 faculty and staff from NHSS, Hawaiʻinuiākea and the College of Education.

Day #1 & 2: Travel & Paris

Today was a long and beautiful day. We started our travels on Wednesday, July 11 in the afternoon and it is now evening in Paris, France on Friday, July 13. We had a very long layover in Los Angeles, Amelika before continuing on our 11 hour flight from Los Angeles to Paris. We are now writing you from our Estudines Grande Arche student housing at the IESEG School of Management while we keep you all updated while eating amazing cheese, bread, salami and ice cream!

 

Soon after checking in, we rushed to our 2 pm tour to the summit of the Eiffel Tower. Eiffel was completed in 1889, so only a few of the Hawaiian aliʻi and diplomats who we are learning about witnessed the completed tower. However, today we learned that the Eiffel Tower was completed for the World Fair, that interestingly also featured work by another Hawaiian Youth Abroad, Henry Marchant, a student studying engraving in the United States.

 

Le Meurice & Haʻalilio
by Hinaikawaihiʻilei Keala, UG Student Hawaiian Studies & Pacific Island Studies

Exactly 175 years ago, on July 13, 1843, Timoteo Kamalehua Haʻalilio, the first Hawaiian diplomat, writes a letter from Le Meurice or also known as Hotel Meurice. I found this letter in the Hawaiʻi state archives and insisted that we had to go there today for its anniversary, so mahalo nui to my hui for being so patient. Hotel Meurice was a common place to stay for aliʻi and diplomats throughout the 1800s. After looking forward to 

this moment for so long, it is unfortunate to say that our experience at Hotel Meurice didn’t go as expected. Upon walking into the lobby and admiring the beauty and extravagance of the decor, we were soon asked to leave after a minute of being in there. For the short moment we were inside, it definitely felt that we were not welcome there based on our appearance. I was immediately taken back and reminded of a similar experience that Haʻalilio endured in his travels to Connecticut. On the steamboat, Haʻalilio and Richards were seated for breakfast but because of the color of Haʻalilio’s skin he was asked by the secretary of the Captain to dine downstairs with the rest of the “colored people.” Haʻalilio ended up dining downstairs, with William Richards joining him as well. The New York Daily Tribune even writes about this account in which they comment on the actions of the men who wronged Haʻalilio. It is incredible that he was starting a conversation of prejudice in the 1840 and making America question their own social norms.

Haʻalilio along with William Richards had the mission to go abroad and secure recognition of the independence of the Hawaiian Kingdom from US, Great Britain, and France. With the immense pressure of the entire kingdom riding on them, there was no option for failure. It is a bitter-sweet story, and although they achieved success in their mission, Haʻalilio never got to see his one hānau again. On his way home, he passes away aboard the Montreal on December 3, 1844. This photo of him taken abroad is said to be the first photo of a Kanaka Hawaiʻi because photography in Hawaiʻi is introduced later in 1845. Haʻalilio is a true patriot who gave his life for the security of his people. As someone who at the time was one of the first Hawaiians to experience the world outside of Hawaiʻi, he stayed true and rooted to his home. In a letter written home describing Britain, Haʻalilio writes “…to forget my land of birth, it cannot be forgotten, there is love for the land, the chiefs, and the people. These countries I have seen are great, but I do not want to stay here, not at all, because the love and desire is not more than what I have for my birthplace.” As we travel in this far away land, he is an individual, a pōhaku whom I try to emulate as we represent our lāhui, ʻāina, and kūpuna.

Stay tuned…we will post more tomorrow! We are headed to Versailles…and it is Bastille Day!

Mahalo nui to our talented photographer Anianikū Chong!

Photo Credits: Anianikū Chong


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