by Kenzie Kahale-Alexander & Dustin Palos
Honolulu, Hawaiʻi to Papeete, Tahiti
“He aupuni palapala koʻu; o ke kanaka pono ʻoia koʻu kanaka,” spoken by Kamehameha III, marked a shift in education in the Hawaiian Kingdom. This ideology would lead the Hawaiian Kingdom to become one of the most literate nations in the world. In 1880 new legislation was introduced under the reign of King David Laʻamea Kalākaua to provide an international education throughout our honua, sending kanaka scholars around the world to foster and develop political, economical, and changes of landscapes. During 1880-1887 the Hawaii Youths Abroad program would deploy 17 Hawaiian men and 1 Hawaiian woman who were hand-picked by the King, studying military sciences, medicine, arithmetic to Italy, Scotland, England, the United States, China, and Japan. During 1890 a group of white American businessmen known as the committee of safety organized and convoluted to introduce the Bayonet Constitution leading to the eventual dissolution of the Hawaiian Kingdom by U.S. Military support. During this period all of the participants abroad were recalled and some never returned.
In 2018 and 2019, under the guidance and research of Nālani Balutski, the Hawaiian Youths Abroad program was resurrected. In this iteration of the program, a group of students revisited England and Italy, where original Hawaiian scholars were sent abroad for their education. There they were able to unearth long-forgotten documentation of Hawaiʻi’s history in the world and visit the places the original Hawaiian Youths Abroad sought knowledge. Through this experience, a better understanding of the Hawaiian Kingdom’s vision under Kalākaua and Hawaiʻi’s vast reach and influence in the world was revealed.
2024 marks the return of Hawaiian Youths Abroad after a five year hiatus; however, this year we are going somewhere entirely new to the program. Today we are flying into Papeete, continuing on this year’s recurring theme of the connectivity of the Pacific from the LHRC theme of ‘Āina Moana to themes reaffirmed recently at the 13th annual Festival of the Pacific “Hoʻoulu Lāhui” regenerating Oceania. Our hui of 16 haumana, kumu, support staff, and ʻohana made during this papa prepared us to partake, draw, and walk in the footsteps of our kūpuna and binding us to this kuleana to reconnect pilina of our the great nations of the Pacific. On this huakaʻi we will be visiting different islands, atolls, along with places that are described in oli, mele, and nūpepa. As we embark into the lands of our ancestors we continue to migrate between ancient pathways that connect Tahiti and Hawaiʻi. Mai Kahiki Mai Pele!
