July 13, 2026

Kamehameha Schools Kapālama’s fifth-grade play is a signature experience for elementary students, one that alumni still reference years later in graduation speeches and conversations about their time at KS. But this year’s production carried even deeper significance as haumāna took the stage to tell the story of their kula, its founder Ke Aliʻi Bernice Pauahi Bishop, and the enduring charge to defend her legacy.

“We were going to do a totally different topic,” the grade’s learning and innovation coach Kristy Keʻala Sharrer KSK’95 said. “But we decided to change gears because we knew we needed to do something in support of Pauahi and our school.”

Researching and learning history is one thing. Interpreting generations of texts into a production meaningful enough for 10- and 11-year-olds to understand, embody and deliver is another. Working closely with departments across the enterprise, the Kapālama kumu spent months refining the script to ensure it was not only historically accurate but also thoughtful and pono in its approach.

“We knew if we were going to do this story, it was going to come with a lot more kuleana,” Kumu Mara Bacon-Chang KSK’87 said. “We had so many changes, but everyone’s attitude about it was terrific because — anything to protect the will. Anything to protect her kauoha.”

The production itself is a full-grade effort involving all 144 fifth graders, from acting and singing to backstage support and choreography. Along the way, kumu said students often discovered strengths and confidence they did not know they had.

“We constantly tell them they are representing our aliʻi and our kūpuna, so not to be ashamed on stage when sharing this moʻolelo,” Sharrer said.

While kumu and haumāna alike uncovered new knowledge through their research on Pauahi and the school’s history, the foundation for that understanding begins long before fifth grade. Through Hawaiian culture-based education, students are grounded in ʻāina, identity and the history of their people so that the Hawaiian Kingdom does not feel distant from their lives today.

“When kumu at the lower levels instill Hawaiian thinking, doing and being, it makes our job so much easier when we put them on stage,” Bacon-Chang said. “In all the work that we do, the field trips we go on, the guests we have, there is the constant expectation for them to see things through a kanaka lens.”

That grounding also means confronting difficult parts of history honestly, including moments within the school’s own past. The kumu said the process challenged both educators and students to think critically about how stories are told, whose perspectives are centered and the duty to share them.

“We used multiple sources to give multiple perspectives of this time period,” Sharrer said. “I don’t want to have only biased resources. We don’t want to hide the truth of history. That’s how we learn.”

That is why the emotional connection audiences feel to these productions runs so deep. Families are watching their children carry forward the stories, values and legacy of our lāhui.

“The plays [before] didn’t hit like the way the plays hit now,” Bacon-Chang said. “It hits home. It means so much more. Everyone knows to bring a Kleenex box to the play.”

As the curtain closed on another production run and school year, haumāna walked away with a stronger understanding of Pauahi, their school and themselves as Pua a Pauahi — a feeling the kumu hope will continue guiding them long after the final bows and into whatever stories they tell next.

View more photos from the performance: https://www.ksbe.edu/news/photos/on-stage-at-kapalama-e-ulu-koa-e-ola-ke-ea