Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 32, Number 7, 1 Iulai 2015 — Waiʻanae woman visiting New Jersey hears church sermon on Hawaiian history [ARTICLE]

Waiʻanae woman visiting New Jersey hears church sermon on Hawaiian history

By Mary Aliee Ka'iulani Milham \ew Jersey isn't exactly the plaee one might expect to hear the music of Queen Lili'uokalani, mueh less a sermon on the wrong done by America in conspiring with missionaries and businessmen in the overthrow of the Hawaiian government. But for Wai'anae resident Denice Keli'ikoa, the unconventional sermon at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, was unforgettable. "I had no elue that he (the pastor) was going to cover the history of the overthrow of Queen Lili'uokalani or her imprisonment," says Keli'ikoa. In February, Keli'ikoa visited Patti Deitch, a colleague she befriended years ago at the opening of a elinie for whieh Deitch had arranged a Hawaiian blessing. When she told Keli'ikoa her home church was planning a Hawai-ian-themed fundraiser, Keli'ikoa offered to kōkua. In addition to making a Hawaiian gift basket for the silent auction - filled with pareos, candies, nuts, jams andjellies - Keli'ikoa contributed homemade lomilomi salmon and ehieken long rice. The next day being Sunday, Deitch invited Keli'ikoa to church. The sermon was to be on "sacred Hawaiian spirituality." "I said, 'Oh that would be interesting,' " recalls Keli'ikoa, not realizing "how great it was going to be." It started with music - a pair of compositions by Queen Lili'uokalani, "Ahe Lau Makani" and "Ku'u Pua Paoakalani," sung by the choir in Hawaiian. English translations were supplemented by the story behind the mele, how the queen composed "Ku'u Pua Paoakalani" while under house arrest in 'Iolani Palaee. "It was sung beautifully," recalled Keli'ikoa. The sermon by Rev. Manish Mishra-

Marzetti was based on observations liom his recent trip to O'ahu and his research. Besides telling his congregation about the queen, the overthrow and her imprisonment, he connected that history to the conditions of Native Hawaiians today. He described the hidden-from-tourists inequities between Waikīkl and Wai'anae - from the Ritz-Car-lton environs to Pearl Harbor, "one of the largest U.S. military bases on the planet," to the vestiges of agribusiness in Waipahu to the Wai 'anae Coast, Keli'ikoa recalled. Largely gleaned from the 1993 Apology Resolution, his sermon also noted the nahonal apology issued by the United Church of Christ, whose American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions began sending missionaries to Hawai'i in 1820 - their scions becoming the architects of the overthrow. Using words like ' 'cultural genocide' ' and"stolen property," Mishra-Marzetti said Americans today still benefit from the "heavy price" paid by Hawaiians and related how his own Universalist church, despite its progressiveness, shares a eommon ancestry with United Church of Christ. While Mishra-Marzetti's delivery was dispassionate, "just being very factual about points in time," Keli'ikoa recalls, it brought her "close to tears." He invited her to stand beside him as he received the departing congregation. "People eame through, shook my hand and apologized," she said. Some said they'd been to Hawai'i many times without hearing its history. Others said they wanted to leam more. Keli'ikoa recommended they do as her friend Patti Deitch had done - read Hawai 'i 'sStorybyHawai 'i 's Queen. I Maty Ali.ce Ka'iulam Milham i.s a freelance kanaka writer. Aformer newspaper reporter and columnistfivm California's Central Coast, she lives i.n Mākaha, O'ahu.

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