Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 11, 1 November 2013 — New plaque for queen's statue corrects date of her reign [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

New plaque for queen's statue corrects date of her reign

By Lisa Asato t took 28 years, but the Queen Eili'uokalani statue at the state Capitol finally has its plaque. Although the idea isn't a new one, it resurfaced two years ago when record producer Ken Makuakane noticed the statue's

inscription referred to 1893 as the end of the queen's reign. That didn't sit well with him, and he brought it the attention of state Sen. Brickwood Galuteria. "I was looking at the Eili'uokalani statue and it said she was queen of Hawai'i from 1891 to 1893," said Makuakane, a United Church of Christ program associate for vitality. "I was standing looking, going: 'That's not true. She reigned her whole life." The plaque doesn't refer to 1893, the year

American and European business interests and others overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom with help from the U.S. military. The queen, who yielded her authority to avoid bloodshed, was later imprisoned in 'Iolani Palaee. In 1993, then-President Bill Clinton signed the Apology Bill, acknowledging America's role in the illegal overthrow.

Makuakane adds: "So, even if we were taken over by an illegal government, she still didn't give up her sovereignty, and even throughout the rest of her life . . . she was always trying to regain that legal kingdom back. But she never lost her sovereignty right as a monarch, and she was always treated as our queen." According to Senate Bill 233 eo-in-

troduced by Galuteria in 2013 to correct the inscription: "Queen Eili'uokalani never relinquished the throne in the face of the overthrow, not withstanding her forced removal from the throne. Therefore, the legislature finds that Hawaiian sovereignty was never relinquished in the overthrow and that Queen Eili'uokalani remained the Queen of the Kingdom of Hawai'i until her death." Soulee Stroud, president of the Association SEE QUEEN ON PAGE 31

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Attendees ring the statue during the Sept. 2 rededication ceremony. - Courtesy photos: Office ofthe Governor

A close-up of the bronze plaque. The statue's inscription says the queen reigned from 1 891 to 1 893. Until the inscription is corrected with the addition of a bronze collar, the statue and plaque will have conflictinq dates.

OUEEN Continued from page 6

of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, said in his oeinion.

based on her writings, the queen "absolutely" believed she remained the queen until her death. Stroud, who calls Makuakane and Galuteria the impetus behind the correction, said Galuteria twice introduced legislation to correct the error, but the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, whieh supported the change, said a bill wasn't needed. During the process of determining a way to correct the inscription, it was discovered that state lawmakers in 1985 approved funding for a plaque for the statue but no one followed through. Stroud said he's not sure why that happened, but he's not looking back. He said more plaques might be added to the statue to tell the queen's story, similar to descriptive plaques for the Kamehameha statue on King Street and Father Damien statue fronting the Capitol. The plaque is the first in a series of changes planned for the bronze statue in the coming months, including new lighting, landscaping and a bronze collar. The bronze collar will cover and correct the existing 1891-1893 inscription along the granite base of the "Spirit of Lili'uokalani" statue. The dates will be

changed to 1891-1917, when she died. Until the bronze collar is installed with the new dates, the statue and the plaque will have conflicting dates, Stroud said. The statue, by artist Marianna Pineda, was commissioned in the late 1970s by then-Gov. George Ariyoshi. To create the text for the plaque, written in Hawaiian and English, Stroud turned to Hailama Farden of Kamehameha Schools. "He speaks Hawaiian very fluently, . . . has the deep knowledge of our history as well as of the queen," Stroud said. Suggestions by the Queen Lili'uokalani Trust were incorporated into the text, and on Sept. 2 - the 175th anniversary of the queen's birthday - the plaque was unveiled at a rededication ceremony honoring "the dignity and memory of Queen Lili'uokalani as the reigning monarch until her death in 1917." At the ceremony, Gov. Neil Abercrombie addressed the crowd of about 150, and former Gov. John Waihe'e, chairman of the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission, gave a speech about Hawaiians' unrelinquished sovereignty. The plaque reads in part: "Our beloved Queen Lili'uokalani ... Invested as Queen Monarch of Hawai'i on January 29, 1891 ... Entered into eternal sleep on November 11, 1917 .. . Our Queen lives forever with steadfast devotion in the hearts of her loyal people." ■