Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen

When I was growing up, all I learned about my home was the year Hawaiʻi became a state.

My mother forbid me from speaking local pidgin at home because of the prevailing stereotype that locals were uneducated, unrefined, and not able to understand the complexities of the wider world.

Television and film portrayed people from Hawaiʻi as pagans needing saving from themselves, who drank and sinned themselves to death unless saved by white foreigners. In more ways than one, the loss of the Hawaiian Kingdom was placed on the shoulders of leaders too weak and simple-minded to maintain and protect… show more.

Hawai‘i’s multiethnic society began in the nineteenth century when Europeans and Americans settled in the Kingdom of Hawai‘i. Hawaii's Story is narrated by Queen Lili‘uokalani, the last Hawaiian monarch. The monarchy adopted Christianity and a constitutional government, accepted white settlers into their families through intermarriage, and allowed settlers to buy land and participate in the government. Their openness was met by betrayal when white settlers overthrew the monarchy in 1893. The Queen abdicated her throne to avoid bloodshed, with the hope that the US would reverse the illegal overthrow and restore her nation’s sovereignty, but her efforts at restoration were… show more.