Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 2, 1 February 1989 — Queen Emma Remembered At Mauna Ala [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Queen Emma Remembered At Mauna Ala

The personal qualities of Queen Emma that endeared her to her people were remembered in memorial services held January 2 at Mauna Ala, the Royal Mausoleum in Nu'uanu, by the Queen Emma Hawaiian Civic Club. Eaeh year on that date, her namesake club commemorates the date of her birth on January 2, 1836. The Queen Emma Hawaiian Civic club, under president Pi'ikea Tomczyk, is currently observing its 25th anniversary year in 1989.

Kimo Alama, teacher, kumu hula, writer, musieian, composer and avid student of Hawaiian history, delivered the commemorative address, "Queen Emma Was Also a Person," whieh drew upon his research at Bishop Museum. There, anthropologist Dr. Elizabeth Tatar helped him locate material, and shared with him a eolleehon of chants for Queen Emma whieh were collected, translated and annotated by Mary Kawena Puku'i. He also drew from original manuscript material in Bishop Museum Library concerning Queen Emma.

"Today, on the 153rd anniversary of Queen Emma's birth, we are reminded of the mana of our chiefess and her accomplishments (that) we all know and benefit from today. The Queen's Medieal Center, the Episcopalian Church in Hawai'i, St. Andrew's Priory School and Hanaiakamalama in Nu'uanu Valley remain as memorials to her." Alama quoted from a paper published in Paradise of the Pacific, February 1931, by Jane Kapahukalaunu Smythe and presented in a memorial service on the 95th anniversary of the life of the Queen. Smythe was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Emma and later became custodian at Hanaikamalama, the summer residence of the Queen. From

her intimate knowledge, Smythe wrote, "Queen Emma, the person — rather than Queen Emmathe personage — is she whom I would present to you this afternoon while we are assembled here to honor her memory; a charmingly reserved and regal person, but withal a good, kindly, considerate and very reai person. "1 count it my good fortune to have known this fascinating royal woman in my childhood, to have served her as a lady-in-waiting in my youth, and to be allowed to serve her memory in my late years." Smythe began as a very young child to observe the Queen's birthday, going with her mother and familv eaeh vear to present a ho'okupu — some-

times a very simple one — at Rooke House. The house stood on Nu'uanu avenue between Beretania St. and Chaplain Lane where the Liberty Theatre now stands. She recalls that after they eame into the Queen's presence,". . .we would advance to within about four feet of where she was seated, then sink to our knees and crawl the remainder of the distance, and kiss her hand." "It was then that the important part of the cere-

mony, viewed through our childish eyes, took plaee, for invariably the Queen would invite us to remain and have something to eat." At 16, Smythe was invited to become one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting. She notes, "It was then I eame to know her best, to leam what a really great, good, kindly, human person she was. She loved to see others enjoy themselves, particularly the young people around her, and I realize now, often sacrificed her own pleasure and comfort for the happiness of others."

Smythe recalled the Queen's love of nature, whether she was in her garden or on wilderness journeys and rough camping trips. It was Emma's habit to go for a morning drive eaeh day for two hours,". . .sometimes around Diamond Head; sometimes, in the guava season, up Nu'uanu Valley to gather fruit. She particularly delighted in the Diamond Head drive, along a lonely and uninhabited coast, and I shared her delight, for she allowed me to handle the reins."

The Queen was no stranger to "roughing it" on camping trips. On one trip to the summit of Mauna Kea, the party spent two nights in Gay's sheep eamp at Humu'ula. "In the evening we all sat around an immense imu and cooked mutton chops on the hot stones, Queen Emma doing her own cooking and making mueh less than did the rest of us over the fact that the frying mutton saturated our clothing and persons with odorous smoke that clung for a long time." Their sleeping accommodations consisted of a

wooden platform in a rude shack that had been built as a temporary shelter for sheepmen. "We had blankets, but no mattress, and so the Queen, Miss Peabody (the other lady-in-waiting) and I slept on the board covered by only one Ni'ihau mat, whieh Her Majesty carried for a saddle eushion."

Despite the hard bed, they slept so soundly that in the morning the queen was able to crawl over her sleeping companions without awaking them. " When we did arouse ourselves, we found her outside the shack, bending down a limb of a (manane) tree and shaking the dew from its leaves. . .to obtain enough water for her morning toilet. The eamp afforded only drinking water." They spent a second wet night in the open, then set out at dawn on the third day for the Mauna Kea summit. "We were heavily clothed and over our faces wore masks of flannel, with holes cut for our eyes and mouths. These masks were necessary as protection against the reflected heat from the stones on the lower ievels and the intense cold at the higher altitudes. Members of the party who failed to wear masks presented a laughable, though almost pitiful aspect after the climb, for their faces and mouths were swollen and disco-

lored, and their eyes seemed to be popping out of their heads. It was cold — we found a rim of thin iee around the edge of Lake Waiau at the summit — but the Queen enjoyed herself thoroughly, as she always did when she was in open country." Emma also enjoyed the comforts of civilization, holding "brilliant functions" at her summer palaee while she lived there, and also at her Waikiki residence, later the Seaside Hotel. At the latter home, a luau and ball was given by the Queen for "Oscar, the crown prince of Norway and Sweden, and Pnnee Eldarago of Italy." The next morning, Emma teased the young Jane: " 'I give you three princes to dance with, and you think it an ordinary event.' " The third pnnee at the ball was her cousin, Kunuiakea.

Smythe's final farewell to the Queen was on her own wedding day as she left O'ahu for her new home on the island of Hawai'i. "Insisting that on such an occasion I must ride in state, Her Majesty had my husband and me placed in her own royal carriage while she rode down to the boat in another equipage. At the pier I kissed my queen's hands. She kissed me on the lips. I never saw her again." Alama concluded his nostalgic address, "None of us will ever have the honor to see Queen Emma or have the privilege to serve her as Mrs. Smythe had. We ean only embrace her in our heart's mind and serve her by being as she was: gracious, kind, humble, appreciative of nature, Hawaiian in every way and seeing positive in negative misfortunes. Let her be our Queen always."

Queen Emma

CD _o Cl) E E 3 e/) 0 E 1 e CD 3 o $ 3 O u o o -e