One of the mele, songs, that I love is Kuʻu Pua i Paoakalani, written by Liliʻuokalani. The moʻolelo, story, of it that I was taught is this:
On September 4, 1895, the monarch of Hawaiʻi, Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Wewehi Kamakaʻeha, who ruled as Liliʻuokalani, was imprisoned in her own palace. She would be held in a small room there for eight months.
One of her very few companions was Eveline “Kitty” Townsend Wilson, the Queen’s protégé and lady in waiting. Kitty agreed to share her friend and mentor’s imprisonment.
Kitty’s husband was Charles Burnette Wilson, had held various posts in the Kingdom, and struggled to balance loyalty to his sovereign and expediency in the new régime. And so, he must participate in the imprisonment of his Queen.
While imprisoned, Liliʻu was under a news embargo. Her letters were read before being given to her, her windows were painted over, and no newspapers were allowed to be sent her.
Here are the Queen’s own words:
“It was the duty of the guards to search whatever was sent to me before it was delivered into my hands; so the baskets, whether of food, flowers, clothes, or papers, went to them first, and at least at the start were closely examined; yet there were some kindly disposed towards me and not over-critical. Every newspaper, however, had to come through the hands of Mr. Wilson; and if he detected in it anything whatever relating to the government, he would take it away, not permitting me to see it. I used to find great comfort in the bits of newspaper that were wrapped around my bouquets which were brought to me from my own garden at Uluhaimalama.
“These were generally wrapped in the newspapers, foreign and local. . .”
“Flowers from home I unwrapped myself, so as to be sure to save these bits of news which I sought opportunity at intervals to read. There were times when I saw something of such interest that I could not resist the temptation to mention it to my companion, Mrs. Wilson. Then it seems she would faithfully report all that I said to her husband, whose custom it was to call every other day, . . . for the purpose of ascertaining if there was anything required. At such times he would withdraw with his wife to the boudoir, where she would repeat to him what had been said by me. . . By some things she occasionally mentioned, he thought that newspapers had been secretly sent in; but when finally he discovered that they had come as wrapping-paper, it made him very angry, and his poor little wife had to suffer for it, even bursting into tears at his sharp reproaches. For this reason I became quite guarded in what I said to her.”
The person who brought these bouquets to the queen was Johnny, the young son of Kitty and Mr. Wilson. Usually the flowers came from Uluhaimalama, a project the Queen had organized with her friends as something like a community garden. One day, Liliʻu noticed that the bouquet included flowers from her own beloved garden at her home, Paoakalani.
As a gift for Johnny, Liliʻu wrote a song, Kuʻu Pua i Paoakalani, cast in the form of a riddle, asking him to name that special flower among the others.
Well, Hawaiian people love nane and kaona, riddles and layered meanings. And so I was taught that the mele also is a love song for her people – the many beautiful flowers of her islands. The fragrance is the news of her beloved people, and the gentle breeze which brings it is young Johnny.
Liliʻuokalani left legacies in both land and music. Her lands have benefited the Hawaiian people through the Liliuokalani Trust and Queen Liliuokalani Children’s Center. Her music has preserved valuable knowledge and poetry of an important era in Hawaiian history. “To compose,” she once said, “was as natural to me as to breathe.” Hui Hānai was organized in 1969 to assist in carrying out the objectives of the Queen Liliuokalani Children’s Center and to perpetuate the memory of the Queen and her accomplishments. In 1973, it decided that the most meaningful contribution it could make would be to collect and publish the Queens Song’s, and a Songbook Committee authorized by the Hui Hānai Council compiled The Queen’s Songbook with lyrics, musical scores, and stories of mele written by Liliʻu and of mele associated with her.