Hana Hou Tour

February 28, 2016February 28, 2016edwindwight Book and Author News, Christian History of Hawai‘i, Obookiah Collection, Opukaha‘ia - Henry Obookiah, Opukaha‘ia and Hawai‘i

Deborah Li‘ikapeka Lee of Hilo (right) holds a maile lei sent especially over from Kaua‘i to be placed at the ‘Opukaha‘ia Memorial Chapel at Punalu‘u Beach on Monday, February 15. She is accompanied by her cousin Cynthia Lehua Nani Ho‘omanawanui-Akimseu, also of Hilo. Deborah and Cynthia are both lineal descendants of ‘Opukaha‘ia. They took part in the Hana Hou Christian Heritage Tour. In 1993 Deborah fulfilled her vision of returning the remains of ‘Opukaha‘ia from his grave site in Cornwall, Connecticut back to his home island. Photo by Chris Cook

I served as an interpretive guide on Dave and Cheryl Buehling’s first Hana Hou Christian Heritage Tour held on the Island of Hawai‘i Saturday, February 13 through Tuesday, February 16. The tour focused on the Hawai‘i side of the life of ‘Opukaha‘ia. A group of 24 visitors from the Mainland flew into Kailua-Kona to join the tour. Local participants also joined the tour. Stops spread across four days included the Kahikolu Church overlooking Kealakekua Bay, the Hikiau Heiau and the supposed site of ‘Opukaha‘ia’s altar located alongside the heiau, the ‘Opukaha‘ia chapel overlooking Punalu‘u Beach in Ka‘u (nearby Henry’s home village of Ninole), Volcano National Park where Mary Boyd told the story of Kapiolani defying the volcano goddess Pele, and a final day at the historic Haili Church in Hilo, a church which once counted a congregation of over 12,000 Native Hawaiians during Hawai‘i’s Great Awakening in the late 1830s and early 1840s.

The Hana Hou Christian Heritage Tour led by Dave and Cheryl Buehling gathered at the ‘Opukaha‘ia Memorial Chapel at Punalu‘u Beach on Monday, February 15. Tour member traveled to Hawai‘i Island from across the Mainland and were joined by local residents. (Dave Buehling photo)

For more information go to the Ka‘u Calendar News Briefs.

Vie de Mills – Oboukiah

January 28, 2016January 28, 2016edwindwight Christian History of Hawai‘i, Obookiah Collection, Opukaha‘ia - Henry Obookiah, Opukaha‘ia and Hawai‘i, Samuel Mills Jr.

Vie de Mills Missionnaire Américain is a booklet published in 1834 out of Switzerland. The life of Samuel Mills Jr., the leader of the famed Haystack Meeting that launched American foreign missions, is told in the booklet. A brief life of Opukaha‘ia is appended to Mills’s life. There is an online version of Vie de Mills Missionnaire American. I was able to locate a copy of this rare and obscure publication out of the home of John Calvin in a book store located in Barcelona, Spain. The wonder of the World Wide Web! No new information is included in Vie de Mills Missionnaire American, but discovering the story of Obookiah in French shows additional evidence of how widespread the fame of Obookiah’s story was in the 19th century.

Hana Hou Tour coming to Big Island

January 16, 2016January 16, 2016edwindwight Book and Author News, Christian History of Hawai‘i, Obookiah Collection, Opukaha‘ia - Henry Obookiah, Opukaha‘ia and Hawai‘i

I am joining Dave Buehring’s Hana Hou Christian Heritage Tour on the Big Island from Saturday, February 13-16, 2016. I will be an interpretive guide for the visitors from the Mainland coming to Hawai‘i to visit key sites in the life of Opukaha‘ia. Opukaha‘ia’s descendant Deborah Lee, who led in the return of Henry’s remains in 1993, will also being serving as interpretive guide on the tour.

Local residents are invited to join the tour. Go to www.hanahou.info for more information. Those accompanying the tour are asked to share in covering the costs for the joint meals being provided.

The tour schedule includes a visit to Hikiau Heiau on the shore of Kealakekua Bay and Henry’s grave site at the Kahikolu (Trinity) Church on Saturday, February 13.

On Sunday, February 14 the tour moves to the Mokuaikaua Church, home of Hawai‘i’s oldest existing Protestant church, and a look at the Plymouth Rock of Hawai‘i sign at the Kona Pier. I helped write the text of the new sign, posted to mark the 195th anniversary of the Mokuaikaua Church. Will be interesting to see the historic signage in person.

On Monday, February 15 we head to Punalu‘u Beach in Ka‘u to visit the chapel dedicated to Henry. His birthplace and childhood home were at Ninole, the land section on the south end of Punalu‘u Beach. Then the tour bus will travel north to Volcano National Park to revisit the site of early Native Hawaiian Christian and alibi Kapiolani’s defiance of the goddess Pele in the 1820s.

Tuesday, February 16 the tour ends at Haili Church in downtown Hilo. Here I will join Deborah Lee at her family’s home church when we join a panel discussion on the impact of the American Protestant Mission in Hawai‘i. The roots of the Haili Church go back to Hawai‘i’s Great Awakening in the late 1830s. The Rev. Titus Coan from Connecticut led the Sandwich Islands Mission station in those days. Native Hawaiian became Christians by the hundreds and thousands in the late 1830s, and the Hilo congregation grew to about 12,000; the church was declared to have the largest congregation in the entire Protestant world.

Ōpūkaha‘ia Memorial Marker and Charmian London

August 22, 2015August 22, 2015edwindwight Opukaha‘ia - Henry Obookiah, Opukaha‘ia and Hawai‘i

Charmian London, the wife of acclaimed American author Jack London, visited the Hikiau Heiau at Napo‘opo‘o in 1920. Charmian’s propitious visit fell during the services surrounding the unveiling of a stone marker commemorating the life and legacy of Ōpūkaha‘ia. Jack London died November 22, 1916 at his home in rural Glen Ellen, California north of San Francisco. The couple sailed to Hawai‘i aboard their ketch the Snark in 1907, and returned again in 1915 and 1916.

In her book Our Hawaii (Islands and Islanders) (1922 edition, pp. 415-419) Charmian wrote:

“Doubtless I heard and listened to the same natives, but in their unlovely modern clothes, at a church convention song-festival in Napoopoo, part of the centennial commemoration of Opukahaia. The best voices on the island were there, sweet, pure, true, melodious. I sat on a bench with my back to the singers, but more particularly, to the glaring lanterns; swinging my feet over a small surf and dreaming into the starry night. ‘What dreams may come,’ when one revisits lands where one’s own romance has been enacted. I thought I saw the Snark’s headsails come questing through the gloom around the point — my little ship of dreams realized.

Charmian London (second from left) enjoys a laugh with native Hawaiians during her visit to Hawai‘i in 1907. Photo by Jack London. Public domain, posted by Jack London Society.

“Upon the outskirts of Napoopoo village lie the well preserved remains of Hikiau heiau where the monument to the famous young Hawaii Christian of a century ago was unveiled with day-long song and prayer and genuine Hawaiian oratory. This temple, which has been cleared of debris, shows half a dozen shallow terraces rising to the final shrine. Here one can see the very holes where once stood the idol-posts. In the middle of this level is a divided wall inclosure. A short distance southeast of the savage edifice, one comes upon a small stone platform where was the house of Opukahaia’s uncle, with its family chapel — I should say heiau; and two tall coconut palms which the boy is supposed to have planted.

“The new monument stands hard against the outer southwest corner of the impressive Hikiau temple, that point being nearest to where Opukahaia had lived, and from where he sailed quite literally for the bourne whence there was no return for him. The Anglicized inscription follows:

IN MEMORY OF  HENRY OPUKAHAIA
Born in Kau 1792.
Resided at Napoopoo 1797-1808
Lived in New England Until His Death at Cornwall Conn., in 1818.
His Zeal for Christ and Love for His People Inspired the First American Board Mission to Hawaii in 1820.”

The Ōpūkaha‘ia Memorial Marker stone dedicated in 1920 was moved from the makai side of the Hikiau Heiau to the churchyard of the Kahikolu Church overlooking Kealakekua Bay. The stone now stands alongside the grave of Ōpūkaha‘ia. His remains were returned by his family in 1993 from the Cornwall, Connecticut graveyard. Ōpūkaha‘ia, known as Henry Obookiah in New England, died from typhus fever in February, 1818. Photo by Chris Cook

Obookiah.com

Christian History of Hawai‘i Books by Christopher L. Cook

Opukaha‘ia – Henry Obookiah