Ke Aliʻi Bernice Pauahi Bishop was just 11 years old when British Captain George Paulet seized control of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1843. Six months later, when sovereignty of the Kingdom was restored to Kauikeaouli, she was a student at the newly established Chiefs’ Children’s School, an academy founded by her uncle to prepare the next generation of aliʻi.
She excitedly captured the moment in her school journal, drawing the hae Hawaiʻi rising once again. At the time, she had only recently begun writing in English, but her entry gives us a personal perspective of the momentous occasion and reminds us that ea lives in the everyday moments: in the classroom, in community and in the choices we make to uplift our lāhui.
July 31 1843 Monday
“This day we…all rejoiced. It was raining this morning, we thought it was a bad day. After breakfast, Mr. Cooke told us we might go and get ready, so we did. At ten o’clock we went up to the plain. All the soldiers were there. We went into the house, and all the ladies were there. And by and by, Mr. Cooke came after Mrs. Cooke and Mrs. Judd to go up to the plain. We stayed there a long while. By and by, the King came with the Admiral on the wagon, I suppose. While we were there the soldiers fired their muskets. Afterwards, the boat fired with [a] 21-gun [salute] and the Craysfort, Dublin, Constellation & the Hazard and [on] Punchbowl Hill they all fired twenty-one guns.
Pretty soon they pulled down the English flag and hoisted the Hawaiian flag and we were all rejoicing. This evening the largest children went down to Mrs. Hooper’s and we sang, “God Save the King” and by and by Mr. Ball and Miss Fanny danced and we came home.
– Courtesy of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum Archives
The anthem she heard, “God Save the King,” would go on to inspire the mele “Restoration Anthem,” written by Edwin O. Hall and sung at the celebration. The song was quickly published in the nupepa just one day after the ceremony and its lyrics still exist today in the archives of the Hawaiian Historical Society. The song begins:
Tune, ‘God Save the King.’
Hail! to our rightful King!
We joyful honors bring
This day to thee!
Long live your Majesty!
Long reign this dynasty!
And for posterity
The sceptre be!
Hail! to the worthy name!
Worthy his Country’s Fame
Thomas, the brave!
Long shall they virtues be,
Shrined in our memory
Who came to set us free,
Quick oe’r the wave!
Hail! to our Heavenly King!
To Thee our Thanks we bring,
Worthy of all;
Loud we thine honors raise!
Loud is our song of praise!
Smile on our future days,
Sovereign of all!
As we celebrate Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea, we carry forward Ke Ali’i Pauahi’s legacy by preparing the next generation in the same way she was readied — through education. The flag she sketched continues to rise across Ke Kula ʻo Kamehameha campuses and in the hearts of our haumāna as they develop into ʻōiwi leaders for Hawaiʻi.
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