Kalanikāhua Hou Luakini celebrates Lā Ho‘iho‘i Ea

Contributed by Joyclynn Costa, Moderator of Kalanikāhua Hou Luakini on Maui

So much of Hawai‘i’s history becomes either one of amazement and marvel while other documentation portrays dark and uncomfortable truths. July 31, 1843 is one of the bright moments.

Our Kingdom was ceded to Britain under protest in 1843 over a dispute of a small piece of land to Richard Charlton with the assistance of Lord George Paulet of Britain.

With the faith our mō‘i had for honest men and diplomacy, we were able to achieve restoration as Queen Victoria sent Admiral Richard Thomas to correct the wrongs committed. This story is not the first to be penned in Hawai‘i’s history. The Hawaiian Kingdom was threatened by war from a European country on July 10, 1839. A French captain by the name of Cyrille Laplace sailed to Hawai‘i with orders from the French government to investigate the mistreatment of French Catholics by Protestant missionaries who were sent to “civilize the hedonistic” Hawaiians. The kuhina nui at the time, Kekāuluohi, granted land and finances for the Catholic mission to prevent war with France.

Kalanikāhua Hou Luakini (Church) thrives to celebrate and be an example of how wonderful Ke Akua moves in spite of adversities. We have found a way to share our deep and rich history in all of our actions and presence. This year we celebrated Lā Ho‘iho‘i Ea by our tradition of displaying the Hae Hawai‘i (Hawaiian flag) and decided to also show the gladness of the occasion by making lei and other crafts to share with anyone who would like to stop, talk, visit with us.

To our surprise, two interns studying here in film industry stopped in. They were from France wanting to fellowship with us in our Hawaiian Protestant luakini (church). Our history repeated itself in body with aloha as the outcome. Others stopped by and did not believe we just wanted to give lei away, as it is just not the norm, but we feel it should be.

Let it start with Kalanikāhua Hou. Keiki placed hae Hawai‘i amongst our kūpuna in the graveyard and we had a blessed celebration of the 180th anniversary of Lā Ho‘iho‘i Ea.