Turning history into action at the ʻOnipaʻa Peace March

Feb. 4, 2026

A powerful sense of unity defined this year’s ʻOnipaʻa Peace March on Jan. 16, 2026, as thousands of Kānaka ʻŌiwi and kamaʻāina walked through downtown Honolulu to honor the resistance and resilience of the Hawaiian nation.

Among them were more than a thousand haumāna from two Ke Kula ʻo Kamehameha campuses, who came together to remember the steadfastness of Queen Liliʻuokalani during the illegal overthrow of her kingdom. This year’s march marked the first time Kamehameha Schools Maui haumāna traveled to Oʻahu to participate alongside their Kapālama peers.

“It’s one thing to talk about the overthrow. It’s another thing to be there — to see it and experience it,” Maui kumu ʻĀlika Guerrero KSM’12 said. “You can read about it; you can watch videos, but being there changes everything.”

By transforming lessons about aliʻi and ea into lived experience, Guerrero said that this approach emphasizes purposeful action, not dwelling in despair.

“Unity and the willingness to struggle — those two things allow us to shed what we call the ‘cultural bomb,’” Guerrero said. “I don’t like to teach victimhood. We ask this question instead: How do we use Hawaiian history to understand the present and shape our future?”

For students, the march offered a way to put that mindset into practice.

“It’s important to use what we learned from this class and make a difference,” said KS Maui senior Alia Romero. “One way that we’re… being involved in our community is doing this march because it’s…remembering what our culture has been through.”

For many haumāna, the power of the day came from standing together as one.

“Coming together as a lāhui is the most important part because we’re all in this together,” said KS Maui senior Logan Andrade. “Going to this march brings us together as a lāhui and recognizes the responsibility that we have toward our future.”

The march offered students a moment to reflect on Queen Liliʻuokalani’s legacy of principled leadership: standing firm without violence and choosing the long view for her people.

“That legacy is something we carry forward,” Romero said. “It’s really important to honor our aliʻi, Queen Liliʻuokalani and Princess Pauahi. They’ve done so much for our lāhui and we need to represent them in that way.”

The day underscored the charge that comes with ʻonipaʻa. For the alum-teacher, it is sustained not only through memory but through kuleana that lives and grows over time.

“We can’t pay Pauahi back,” Guerrero said. “But what we can do is pay it forward by preparing the next generation to pick up the mantle and keep going.”