Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 18, Number 12, 1 December 2001 — Dec. 19 marks Princess Pauahi's 170th birthday [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Dec. 19 marks Princess Pauahi's 170th birthday

By Manu Boyd Eaeh year in December when hundreds of Kamehameha Schools haumāna don formal white attire to attend memorial _

church services for Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, they pay tribute not only / to their school's founder, but also a /A

true ali'i who led her people well. Bernice Pauahi Pākī was born Dec. 19, 1831, to High Chief Abner Pākl, and High Chiefess Laura Kanaholo Konia. Although both Pauahi's par- ' ents were of high ali'i stock, it was Konia's mo'okū'auahu that linked

Pauahi with Kamehameha I whose name her leeacv still bears.

Konia was the daughter of Luahine and Ka'ōleiokū, eldest son of Kamehameha. It was Konia's sister's name that Pauahi inherited, meaning "consumed in fire." The elder Pauahi,

with High Chief Kekūanāo'a, had Princess Ruth Kanāhoahoa Ke'elikōlani, Bernice Pauahi's first cousin, from whom she inherited the lion's share of her lands. In the tradition of hānai, Pauahi was

given to Konia's aunt, Kina'u, who \ longed to have a daughter.

Eventually, Kīna'u had a daughter, Victoria Kamāmalau. Her sons were David Kamehameha, Moses j Kekūaiwa, Lot Kapuāiwa and Alexander Liholiho. Bernice Pauahi was raised among her Kamehameha cousins until Kīna'u's untimely death.

W When Pauahi returned to be reared by her birth parents at the age of eight,

they had taken as a hānai another chiefly child, Lili'u Kamaka'eha who, some 58 years later, would rule the kingdom as Queen Lili'uokalani.

In 1850, Pauahi became Mrs. Charles Reed Bishop. This marriage to a foreinger was against her parents wishes, but love had kindled between the princess and Mr. Bishop, a banker from New York, 10 years her senior. Together, they heeame' civic leaders travelled extensively. In a song composed by Lili'u for Pauahi, the lyrics say "E ola 'o ka lani, e Pauahi lani nui a kau i ka puaaneane." (May you live, O great Princess Pauahi, until the very extremities of life). Sadly, Pauahi passed away two months shy of her 53rd birthday. Three years later in 1887 her husband oversaw the establishment of a school bearing the name Kamehameha as directed in the princess' will, to educate Hawaiian children and afford them the opportunity to become good and industrious men and women. In funeral services for Princess Pauahi, Rev. J.A. Cruzan said, "Refusing to rule her people, she did what was better — she served them, and in a way so grandly as by her example." ■

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