Wāhine Aloha ʻĀina​

Ka ʻAhahui Aloha ʻĀina Hawaiʻi o nā Wāhine
Women's Hawaiian Patriotic League

Hui Aloha ʻĀina a me Kuokoa Nā Lede (The Ladies Hawaiian Patriotic and Independent League was founded on March 27, 1893 by Emilie Widemann Macfarlane. Emilie sister, Martha Widemann Berger and Abigail Kuaihelani Campbell were elected as vice presidents. The league was central to the organizing of the kūʻe petitions and at its height their were 11,000 members among 37 branches across the archipelago. There was a formal split among the group based on a disagreement about the wording of a testimonial that was to be presented to James Blount , who was sent to investigate the overthrow, in April of 1893, by Emilie Macfarlane and some of the younger wahine, creating a distinct Hilo branch. Regardless, On April 18, an executive body of seven members: Campbell, Nāwahi, Rebecca Kahalewai Cummins, Mary Ann Kaulalani Parker Stillman, Jessie Kapaihi Kaae, Hattie K. Hiram, Laura Kekupuwolui Mahelona submitted a petition to Commissioner Blount.tAbigail Kuaihelani Campbell was then elected president. Nūpepa publisher, Emma ʻAʻima Nāwahī and her husband Joseph Nāwahī were also founding members who used their nūpepa as an organizing tool to call meetings and put forward a Hawaiian narrative to counter the sugar planter backed newspapers. ʻAʻima, Abigail and Mrs. Nailima of Hilo were among the delegates to travel to Washington DC to deliver the Kūʻē petitions and to lobby against annexation in 1897. The organization dissolved in 1901, shortly after the merger of Hui Aloha ʻĀina into the Home Rule Party.

ʻO ka hana a kēia ʻAhahui, ʻo ia ke kōkua i ka hoʻolaulaha ʻana i nā manaʻo aloha ʻāina a me ka hoʻomau ʻana i ke Kūlana Kūʻokoʻa o nā Mokupuni o Hawaiʻi Nei.

The object of this Association is to help the propagation of Patriotic Sentiments tending toward the preservation to the Independent Autonomy of the Islands of Hawaiʻi Nei.

Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Buke II, Helu 673, Aoao 3. Maraki 30, 1893

Within this hall were crowded 300 men and women; without were as many more, unable to find standing room. Suddenly there was a silence. The crowd parted and a woman entered—Mrs. Kuaihelani Campbell, President of the Womanʻs Hawaiian Patriotic League.

Her gown was a simple one of black crape, with black hat and gloves, relieved by that typical native decoration, a flower boa about her throat. She was absolutely queenly in her dignity and repose. One could almost imagine her a Joan of Arc in the far away Pacific land.

-Miss Anna E. Berry, "The Injustice of Annexation", Independent, 2/5/1898, p. 1

We, Mrs. James Campbell, as President of the Hawaiian Women’s Patriotic League of the Hawaiian Islands, an organization in which the great majority of the Hawaiian Women of the Hawaiian native are associated unanimously, for the purpose of obtaining restoration of the Monarchical Government in the Hawaiian Islands, reposing confidence and trusting in Her wisdom and integrity, do hereby certify to the people of our great and good friend, the Republic of the United States of America, that the large majority of the Hawaiian people have in the past and now at the present time recognized Her Majesty Queen Liliʻuokalani as our lawful and Constitutional Sovereign regardless of the abdication by Her of Her right and claim as the lawful Sovereign to the throne of Hawaiʻi.

That no cause whatever can arise that will alter or change the mind of the Hawaiian people and their desire to see Monarchy restored, and the Throne occupied by Queen Liliʻuokalani, who would never have been deposed by a handful of foreigners but for the support rendered them by the American Ship of war Boston.

Mrs. Abigail Kuaihelani Maipinepine Campbell, President, Women's Hawaiian Patriotic League, 12/30/1896

Lydia Kaʻonohiponiponiokalani Aholo

nūpepa Ke Aloha Aina , 1895-1910

Emma ʻAʻima Aiʻi Nāwahī

We are weak people, we Hawaiians, and have no power unless we stand together. The United States is just—a land of liberty. The people there are the friends, the great friends of the weak. Let us tell them—let us show them that as they love their country and would suffer much before giving it up, so do we love our country, our Hawaiʻi, and pray that they do not take it from us.

Our one hope is in standing firm—shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart. The voice of the people is the voice of God. Surely that great country across the ocean must hear our cry. By uniting our voices the sound will be carried on so they must hear us.

In this petition, which we offer for your signature today, you, women of Hawaiʻi, have a chance to speak your mind. The men’s petition will be sent on by the men’s club as soon as the loyal men of Honolulu have signed it. There is nothing underhand, nothing deceitful in our way—our only way—of fighting. Everybody may see and may know of our petition. We have nothing to conceal. We have right on our side. This land is ours—our Hawaii. Say, shall we lose our nationality? Shall we be annexed to the United States? ʻAʻole loa. ʻAʻole loa.

—Emma Nāwahī in Hilo, 9/16/1897

PALAPALA HOʻOPIʻI KŪʻĒ HOʻOHUIʻĀINA.

I ka Mea Mahalo ʻia WILLIAM McKINLEY, Peresidena,
a me ka ʻAha Senate, o ʻAmerika Huipū ʻia.

ME KA MAHALO :--

NO KA MEA, ua waiho ʻia aku imua o ka ʻAha Senate
o ʻAmerika Huipū ʻia he Kuʻikahi no ka Hoʻohui aku iā
Hawaiʻi nei iā ʻAmerika Huipū ʻia i ʻōlelo ʻia, no ka noʻonoʻo ʻia
ma kona kau mua i loko o Dekemaba, M. H. 1897; nolaila,
ʻO MĀKOU, nā poʻe no lākou nā inoa malalo iho, nā
wāhine Hawaiʻi ʻōiwi, he poʻe makaʻāinana a poʻe noho hoʻi
no ka ʻĀpana o _________________________, Mokupuni o
_________________________, he poʻe lālā no ka ʻAHAHUI
ALOHA ʻĀINA HAWAIʻI O NĀ WĀHINE O KO HAWAIʻI PAE-
ʻĀINA, a me nā wāhine ʻē aʻe i like ka manaʻo makeʻe me ko
ka ʻAhahui i ʻōlelo ʻia, ke kūʻē aku nei me ka manaʻo ikaika
loa i ka hoʻohui ʻia aku o ko Hawaiʻi Paeʻāina i ʻōlelo ʻia iā
ʻAmerika Huipū ʻia i ʻōlelo ʻia ma kekahi ʻano a loina paha.

PETITION AGAINST ANNEXATION.

To His Excellency WILLIAM McKINLEY, President,
and the Senate, of the United States of America.

GREETING :--

WHEREAS, there has been submitted to the Senate of
the United States of America a Treaty for the Annexation
of the Hawaiian Islands to the said United States
of America, for consideration at its regular session in Decem-ber, A.D. 1897; therefore,
WE, the undersigned, native Hawaiian women, citi-
zens and residents of the District of ________________,
Island of _____________________, who are members of the WOMEN'S HAWAIIAN PATRIOTIC LEAGUE OF THE HAWAI-
IAN ISLANDS, and other women who are in sympathy with
the said League, earnestly protest against the annexation
of the said Hawaiian Islands to the said United States of America in any form or shape.

IKEA--ATTEST :

Mrs. Lilia Aholo

Kakauʻōlelo--Secretary.

Mrs. Kuaihelani Campbell

Peresidena-President.

Sept. 11th, 1897