Who is Princess Kaiulani Of Hawaii

She was known as the heart of the people and the hope of the nation.


Her mother took sick and began wasting away of a mysterious illness. On the day of her death, she called her young daughter to her bed. "I have seen your future very clearly," she said. "You will leave these islands for a very long time. You will never marry. And you will never be queen."

When Ka'iulani died, allegedly of a broken heart, at age 23, her mother's prophecies had all come true. But what her mother had not seen was the beautiful, courageous young woman her daughter would become--how, while still a shy schoolgirl she would stand on the world stage to fight for her people, her culture and her islands. How she would remain true to her faith and her principles even when faced with unfathomable loss, and how she would offer love and forgiveness to those who had slighted her--both politically and in her own family.

PRINCESS KAIULANI OF HAWAII
The Monarchy's Last Hope

"I must have been born under an unlucky star,
as I seem to have my life planned out for me
in such a way that I cannot alter it..."

...Princess Kaiulani,
Rozel, Jersey,
summer of 1897

She was born in October of 1875, the daughter of Princess Miriam Kapili Likelike (pronounced "Lee-keh-lee-keh") and Scotsman Archibald Scott Cleghorn, prosperous businessman, horticulturist, and eventual Governor of O'ahu during Queen Lili'uokalani's reign. Princess Likelike, gifted musician and renowned society hostess, was sister to Hawai'i's then reigning monarch, the brilliant "renaissance man" and cultural visionary David La'amea Kalakaua; of the "Na Lani 'Eha" - the four royal siblings comprising the Kalakaua dynasty - Likelike was the only member fated to produce a royal child. And upon this "hapa-haole" (part-non-Hawaiian) infant would rest the fondest hopes of the Kanaka Maoli people for their Nation and place in the wider world; after her uncle's untimely death, his also-childless sister Lili'uokalani would name her niece heir to the endangered Hawaiian throne.
Victoria Ka'iulani was named for the Reigning Monarch of England, long a friend to Hawaiian Royalty. (Queen Victoria had been god-mother to Prince Albert, the son of King Kamehameha IV and his consort the part English Queen Emma; Albert, too, would meet a tragic fate - if at a younger age than Ka'iulani - dying of a "brain fever" at age 4.)

"Seventy years ago Christian America sent over Christian men and women to give religion and civilization to Hawai'i. Today, three of the sons of those missionaries are at your capitol asking you to undo their father's work. Who sent them? Who gave them the authority to break the Constitution which they swore they would uphold? Today, I, a poor weak girl with not one of my people with me and all these 'Hawaiian' statesmen against me, have strength to stand up for the rights of my people. Even now I can hear their wail in my heart and it gives me strength and courage and I am strong - strong in the faith of God, strong in the knowledge that I am right, strong in the strength of seventy million people who in this free land will hear my cry and will refuse to let their flag cover dishonor to mine!"

She was only 23 when she died finally at home in Hawai'i, but health broken by a life-time of losses - of her governess, god-mother, mother, uncle, beloved half-sister, guardian, and country. At two a.m. on the morning of March 6th, 1899, the peacocks dwelling in the 10-acre grounds of her magnificent home estate 'Ainahau ("land of hau trees" or "cool place") abruptly began to scream%u2026a terrible din which alerted all of Honolulu to the fact that the brave half-Scottish Princess who had traveled so far, seen so much, and made such gallant efforts to save her Hawaiian nation had only returned home to defeat, ill health, and death. To this day, legend has it that the cherished pets of "The Princess of the Peacocks" knew the spirit of their gentle mistress had fled%u2026some of them becoming so inconsolably raucous as a result that the Princess' stricken father had to have them shot.

Despite the continued noble efforts of her aunt the Queen and loyal Royalists to bring America to account for the overthrow of the rightful Hawaiian government (and subsequent illegal annexation of the island nation), with the death of their beloved Crown Princess, many Hawaiians felt that hope for restoration of their Nation during their life-times was at an end. But the influence of the short life of this queenly young woman continues to this very day inspiring people of many walks of life and differing backgrounds to various achievements in her honor. Two communities (and many individuals with ancestral ties to both) take great pride in her, and justly so.

Article for ELECTRIC SCOTLAND
PRINCESS KA'IULANI
Rose of Two Worlds
by Mindi Reid