Recalling the Days of Kamehameha V.

KEAHU KEALIIAUKAI

Keahu Kealiiaukai is one of the last Hawaiians left who is not proficient in English. He is a Hawaiian famous for his knowledge of plants, and he is 82 years old. He lives in Lahaina, Maui, the capital of Hawaii in days of yore. Kealiiaukai is now living with his daughter, Mrs. Juliette Pali.

When Kealiiaukai was born in Kaupo, Maui, on the road going to the crater of Haleakala, in the year 1859, this was the fifth year of Kamehameha IV’s reign over Hawaii nei. Kealiiaukai was 4 when that monarch died. He does not recall this.

Remembering the King.

However, Kealiiaukai does in fact remember Kamehameha V, or King Kapuaiwa, his given name; and the last of the Kamehamehas. Kapuaiwa went to Lahaina numerous times, where he was welcomed warmly by his makaainana.

In Kealiiaukai’s eighty and two years of life, he witnessed the passing of the monarchs of his homeland, closing with the overturning of the nation under Queen Liliuokalani’s protection, in 1893. Then the establishing of the provisional government and the Republic of Hawaii, and the joining of the Islands to the United States and the formation of this Territory of America, 40 years ago.

A Religious Man

Kealiiaukai is an important man in Lahaina for the kamaaina there. His wife left this world eight years ago, but she did not however leave behind children. Kealiiaukai is still strong and active. He participates often in works of this Father in Heaven. He spent his life being a member of the Faith of the Latter Day.

Perhaps he is the last medicine man living and practicing from before the times when there was licensing of those in that profession. During his time, it is said that Kealiiaukai practiced healing with plants amongst his own people and healed them due to his expertise in the use of plants growing in the forests of Hawaii, for all types of illnesses.

(Hoku o Hawaii, 3/5/1941, p. 1)

Hoku o Hawaii, Volume XXXV, Number 45, Page 1. Malaki 5, 1941.