The Diaries of Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii, 1885–1900

by David W. Forbes (Editor)

Queen Liliuokalani, the eighth monarch of the Hawaiian Islands, is known and honored throughout the world, even though she was never ceremonially crowned. Published here for the first time, the Queen’s diaries, which she penned between 1885 and 1900, reveal her experience as heir apparent and monarch of the Hawaiian Islands during one of the most intense, complicated, and politically charged eras in Hawaiian history.

The practice of keeping journals and diaries was well established among the Hawaiian alii, or chiefs, when Lydia Kapaakea Paki, later known as Liliuokalani, was a child. In most cases, however, only fragments of alii diaries have survived. Those of Queen Liliuokalani are the sole―and striking―exception.

The Liliuokalani diaries for 1887, 1888, 1889 (short version), 1893, and 1894 are a part of the group of documents known as the “seized papers” that are now held by the Hawaii State Archives. These are among the records seized by order of Republic of Hawaii officials in 1895 with the intent of obtaining evidence that she had prior knowledge of the 1895 counterrevolution. The government eventually turned these documents over to the territorial archives in 1921, four years after the death of the Queen. Four of the diaries transcribed here were not seized and remained in the Queen’s possession; today these are in the Bishop Museum. The important 1889 (long version) diary is now in the private collection of a member of her family and its contents appear here in publication for the first time

Collectively, the Queen’s diaries, introduced, edited, and annotated by David W. Forbes, provide the reader with invaluable insights into Liliuokalani’s private life, thoughts, and deeds during her rule as sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands; the overthrow of her government in 1893; her arrest, imprisonment, trial, and abdication in 1895; and her efforts in Washington, DC, to avert the 1898 annexation of her beloved islands to the United States.

David W. Forbes is an internationally recognized historian specializing in the written and pictorial history of Hawaii. He is the author of the four-volume Hawaiian National Bibliography 1780–1900 (University of Hawai‘i Press and Hordern House, 2003), as well as numerous books, essays, artist monographs, and catalogues. The Forbes Collection in the Hawaii State Archives includes his transcriptions and notes regarding significant documents of the Hawaiian kingdom’s last royal family.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

576 pages, Hardcover

Published April 30, 2020

Reviews

[olive ⭒˚.⋆ ⚔ .ᐟ · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I came nearer to the end of this book, I started to consider how I would rate it here, on Goodreads. How can I make a qualitative judgement on a series of diaries that was never meant to chronicle the end of a monarchy, the violence of an illegal annexation, and the strife of a Queen, a me kona iwi, a me kona koko, a me kona kanaka aloha? How can I dare to cast judgement on whole pages being boring as they chronicle nothing but loans and money spent — their purpose was always to act as a private ledger, not my weekly entertainment? If certain years were disappointing, it was because Queen Liliuokalani's diaries were incomplete, whole pages seized at the time of her imprisonment and destroyed or damaged upon return decades and years too late. If I yearned for more 'ōlelo hawai'i in her own written hand, it was only because she once expressed herself solely in her own language, and when the haole seized her homeland for their own she stopped speaking in a tongue she was most fluent. There were whole months of writing that simply recounted the weather, because in imprisonment, there was little else for her to say. Toward the end of her life there were weeks upon weeks where she only wrote daily "mai 'a'ole hiki mai." because in waiting for the doctor to come bearing the worst of news about her daughter's and her own ailing health, what else was there to mention? It's a tragedy, the story written in the words of these diaries, and the history that fills her occasionally deliberate and sometimes not-so-punishing silence. But there were moments of love, of the deepest aloha, as well. It was a heavy thing to carry, this book — not just physically, but emotionally and historically, as well. There were moments that had me sickened and angry and more sorrowful, still. But there were moments of great levity, especially toward the beginning, and in a way I found quite poetic, despite the lack of intent, Liliu's diaries start out rich in 'ōlelo hawai'i and end the same way. Perhaps because she spoke only of her own feelings in 'ōlelo, and at the end of her life, there was much to lament for, and much to ponder in her own dying language on her own stolen land. But it was reverent, my opportunity to feel the histories and read the 'ōlelo out loud to my mother, and place little moments of our own history into the koa wood bowl, and see plainly how history touches us even here, even now.