2015 Mai Poina – The Overthrow History Walking Tour

This is the second year in a row that we’ve signed up for this free historical walking tour that was founded by The Hawaii Pono’ī Coalition in 2007. This year, the tours were scheduled for September 6, 7, 12 and 13 with tour times starting at 4:00PM. The Mai Poina walking tours were developed by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl. In prior years, we had heard about the Coalition’s annual drama trilogy: Mai Poina: The Overthrow (of the Hawaiian Monarchy), The Annexation Debate and Trial of A Queen but it has only been recently that we were able to make the time to participate in the walking tours.
We signed up online for the free tour and on the appointed day and time we met with a tour guide in front of the Hawaii State Library. The tour took us around to several sites within the grounds of the ‘Iolani Palace (which is the ONLY Royal Palace in United States) to meet with re-​enactments of Native Hawaiian, European and other Asian immigrants’ social, economic and political sentiments or perspectives of the day.
Each of the tour groups were small enough to see and listen to the living historical performances. We were even able to interact with the performers after each segment and these actors really got into character! At one point, as we followed our guide around the Palace Grounds, we met with a rather convincing portrayal of Queen Lili’uokalani, as she was trying to come to terms with «doing the right thing» for her citizens to spare lives or further bloodshed while deciding to conditionally yield her sovereign authority to the United States. You could see and feel the inner turmoil, from this actress, that the Queen must have gone through. Many of us were touched by the performances and some women were actually crying!
This walking tour is only one part of the historical trilogy that the Coalition has presented to educate residents and visitors about the impacts (positive but mainly negative) to Hawaii’s people and native culture that were brought about by the Overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy in 1893. The other parts to the Mai Poina presentations will follow a couple of months later at the Ali’iōlani Hale (The King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center).
If you are a resident or visitor, I would recommend this concise educational living historical account. The performances and discussions gave us a different perspective into and understanding about Hawaii’s history.
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