Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 39, Number 2, 1 February 2022 — The Queen's Red Cross Flag [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Queen's Red Cross Flag

By ūiane Peters-Nguyen, CEŪ, American Red Cross, Pacific lslands Region All my life I'd heard the story of my grandmother, Mollie Kananipau'ole Akana Peters, and how she eelebrated her birthday as a young girl annually with Queen Lili'uokalani. The family lived on the Queen's land in Waikīkī (an area known as Hamohamo) and my father said that through the Queen's retainer ("Big Tutu," as she was known to my father), word was sent to the Queen when little baby "Kanani" (my grandmother) was born in 1905, auspieiously just a day after the Queen's birthday. The family reserved a roeker on the lānai for the Queen to eome and sit and visit with little Kanani on her birthday. The Queen also invited Kanani to join the Queen on September 2 for eelebrations honoring her own birthday. Later, my father, David M. Peters, would serve as ehair and, for almost three deeades, as a trustee of Lili'uokalani Trust where the Queen's birthday eommemoration was an annual event. My own serviee as president of the board of Hui Hānai, has enabled me to play a role in perpetuating the Queen's legaey through a doeumentary film and publieations, the latest of whieh is the Diaries ofQueen Lili'uokalani ofHawai'i, edited and annotated by David Forbes.

Pnor to aeeeptmg my Red Cross position, I learned about the Queen's role in helping to establish the Hawai'i Red Cross. She was an avid supporter of the organization due its humanitarian mission. In September 1917, one of the last things she did - just several weeks before she passed away - was donate $100 to heeome a patron and help launeh our very first membership drive. Some 16,000 people (a signifieant portion of the island's population) heeame members. Prior to the membership drive, the Queen, with some helpers, sewed a large Red Cross flag whieh flew above 'Iolani Palaee during World War I. When the Queen presented this proud emblem to the Red Cross on Sept. 14, 1917, she stated, "Ihe flag is an expression of my warm and hearty sympathy for the eause of hu-

manity." On my first day of work in July of 2020, upon my arrival at our Hawai'i Red Cross headquarters at Diamond Head, I asked to be shown the Queen's Flag. I was ushered into the board room where the flag dominates the front wall, eneased under glass in a koa frame. I eould feel the Queen's mana imbued into the fabrie she had handled, and her spirit of aloha permeate my being. And, in that moment, I knew I was right where I was supposed to be, doing what I was meant to do. ■

3 Diane Pelers-Nguyen stands in front of the Red Cross flag that Queen Lili'uokalani herself helped to sew. 1 Lili'uokalani was instrumental in establishina the Red Cross in Hawai'i. She presented the flag to the Red i Cross on Sept. 14, 1917, two months before sne passed away. The flag flew above 'lolani Palaee during World \ War I. Today, it is displayed in the board room of the Hawai'i Red Cross headquarters at Diamond Head. - [ Photo: Courtesy