Senator Akaka’s ʻohana visits his collection

David Mattson, grandson of U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka, visited Hamilton Library on Sept. 12 with his wife, Elizabeth, and daughter, Catherine. Senator Akaka donated his papers to the library’s Hawaiʻi Congressional Papers Collection in 2011.

Dawn Sueoka, congressional papers archivist, and Morgan Schmidt, recent LIS graduate and current project manager, shared highlights from the collection, including the certificate of Akakaʻs 1976 election to the U.S. House. They also pulled photo albums documenting Akaka’s 1990 U.S. Senate race, hand annotated drafts of the Apology Resolution, and a notebook containing outreach plans for a 1999 version of what would become the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, a.k.a., the Akaka Bill.

The Mattsons identified aunties, uncles and friends in campaign photographs and documents, and they talked about the work of the Daniel Kahikina Akaka Family Foundation, which promotes youth literacy and community engagement, and perpetuates the legacy of Senator Akaka.

Old photograph of three men in large red carnation leis speaking to a woman — U.S. Senator Spark Matsunaga and U.S. Representatives Cecil Heftel and Daniel K. Akaka speaking with a constituent at 1982 Matsunaga campaign rally at Aloha Stadium. Spark M. Matsunaga Papers, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Hamilton Library.

“It was moving to visit the UH archives and see and hold some of the documents and photos which are part of the historical record of my grandfather’s time in office,” Mattson said. “I loved the photos of Pa with Cec Heftel and Sparky, and seeing him in that shirt warmed my heart, because it’s one of the things that I acquired and kept over the years; a touching connection with him, 40 years earlier in that photo.”

He also shared stories about the late senator and tidbits about Hawaiʻi political history – including describing a rally at Aloha Stadium that required volunteers to assemble 50,000 bentos.

“It’s so rewarding to see all of the personal connections to our collections emerge, and it’s a good reminder that even though our archives document events that occurred in the past, they contain many strong and vibrant connections to people, organizations and issues of the present,” Sueoka said.

In accordance with the donor’s wishes, the bulk of the Akaka papers will be opened to the public in 2028. With permission of the donor’s representative, the Public Relations series of the collection has been opened for research, and all of the Senator’s speeches have been digitized and are available online.