Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 4, 1 April 2012 — HISTORICAL INSIGHTS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HISTORICAL INSIGHTS

Literacy was embraced first by Ka'ahumanu and Keōpūolani, Kamehameha l's sacred wife and motherto King Kamehameha II and III and Nāhi'ena'ena. Keōpūolani and Ka'ahumanu sent a teacher to every chiefs kauhale with instructions to learn reading and writing. Kauikeaouli, who would become King Kamehameha III, and Nāhi'ena'ena were the first in the kingdom to learn to read and write at age 6 and 4, respectively. So when Kauikeaouli made his literacy proclamation circa 1825, when he was about 11 years old, he was making an edict. He was declaring that the eommon folk, the maka'āinana, would learn reading and writing because the chiefs already had. — KAU'I SAI-DUDOIT, project managerof Ho'olaupa'i: Hawaiian Language Newspaper Project, describing the origins of literacy in the Hawaiian nation

Kauikeaouli. - Courtesy: Honolulu Museum ofArt