Skip to main content
One of our first stops on the Big Island was to see the statue of Kamehameha I. We have the twin of this statue in Honolulu.


In 1878, a statue of King Kamehameha I was commissioned to commemorate the discovery of Hawaii by Captain James Cook. A sculptor in Italy created this statue which was supposed to be displayed on Oahu. On it's way here, the ship wrecked somewhere around the Falkland Islands and a new statue had to be commissioned.

Before the second statue was completed, the first statue was salvaged, sold to a member of the Hawaiian government and was sent to the Big Island to mark the birthplace of King Kamehameha I.

The statue on the Big Island was painted with the brighter red and yellow colors while the statue on Oahu has a golden color for the clothing. Our guide told us there was a lot of uproar over whether or not to paint it. There are also issues because the sculptor who created the statues ignored the photos of Polynesians which were sent to him and gave the statue Roman facial features as well as a Romanesque stance of the spear, cape, and gesturing hand.

A third statue was commissioned when Hawaii became a state. It stood in Statuary Hall at the United States Capitol until Obama became president and then it was moved to a more prominent position in the Capitol's new visitor's center.

A fourth statue was commissioned for a resort in Kauai, but the people of Kauai did not want a statue of King Kamehameha as they were the only island not physically conquered by Kamehameha I. The ruler of Kauai decided to prevent further bloodshed by simply joining Kamehameha and becoming a vassal to the king.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mammogram

I'm having my annual mammogram today. I always hear about how painful they are, but honestly, I've never thought they are that bad. Not the most comfortable, but not painful either. Every time I have a mammogram, I'm reminded of this story. It won the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition and I still get a kick out of it every time I read it. So I'm posting it here today for your reading pleasure: Erma Bombeck Writing Competition 1st place in Humor Category Winner Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, Oregon "The First Time's Always the Worst" The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think a really complicated game of Twister - right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body). Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside o...
1 comment
Read more

Ben's Feet

Ben went camping with his youth group this weekend. He said it was the best weekend he's had since we've been in Hawaii, and possibly in his entire life. The one negative part was that he stepped on some coral out in the water and cut his feet up pretty good. He swears it was all dead coral - you shouldn't touch live coral, much less walk on it because it damages the coral. No one ever mentions that it also damages your feet. They just tell you not to damage the coral. Also, coral is a living organism . If you step on live coral and a tiny piece breaks off in the cut, it will continue to grow. Did you see the movie Alien ? If some creature incubates in Ben's feet, then breaks out and eats us all one night, I'm going to be quite miffed. (Make sure you read the inscription on his tee shirt in this picture. It's quite appropriate.)
Post a Comment
Read more

Luau, Luau

This week we attended our first luau! We went to the luau at the Hale Koa hotel. The grounds were just incredible. There were men playing soft Hawaiian music, the plants and flowers were glorious. There were people in native costumes making headbands out of palm fronds, chopping up fresh coconut for us to taste, handing out flowers for us to put behind our ears and handing out seashell leis to each guest. It was very relaxed and peaceful. This was a Samoan man who kept us entertained during the cocktail hour. He was very funny! Check out those tattoos. He said the tattoos were part of a rite of passage that he had to go through. He said it took fourteen days to complete the tattoo and, yes, it hurt. And yes, everything was tattooed. He demonstrated how to climb a coconut tree using only a bandanna around his feet. They picked people out of the audience and gave them a quick hula lesson. Katie was thrilled to be one of the people chosen and of course it irritated Ben because he thi...
7 comments
Read more