Hawaiian History: Hidden Treasure Across DOT Headquarters By: Maaza Mekuria Kawaiaha‘o church at the corner of Punchbowl and King Street (across the street from Alia’amoku Building - HDOT headquarters on Queen Street) is celebrating its bicentennial celebration in 2020. The church was designed by the Reverend Hiram Bingham, its first Kahu, who himself was inspired to leave family and friends to come to Hawaii with the first group of missionaries, to teach the people of Hawai‘i. Bingham and his wife Sybil, buried their first son at the same church compound after the first few years in Hawai’i and yet remained to complete the translation of the Bible into Hawaiian, aided by the other Hawaiian who sailed with him from New England, including Thomas Hopoo, Henry `Ōpūkaha`ia friend. The relationship with Hawaiian Ali‘i became more intimate after the death of his first child. The building was constructed, more than 20 years after the arrival of the missionaries, using coral stones quarried out of the Honolulu harbor by the many Hawaiian volunteers. Mr. Hiram Bingham never had a chance to see the building he started as he was called by the Church to return home. This building stands to the
Ever yone is en couraged to vi sit the Kawai across the DO ha‘o Church, T headquarte just rs, to explore its rich history .
timony of the tenacity of testimony ith off th l off the ffaith the people Hawaii.
Hopu, whose friendship lasted ti h was a d kh d a lif lifetime, who deckhand on the Ship.
Henry `Ōpūkaha`ia was born in 1792 in the Island of Hawai’i (Big Island) to Keaau and Kamohoula.
After an arduous journey `Ōpūkaha`ia arrived in New Haven Connecticut and was very much distressed to see that he was not able to get an education while other Caucasian young men were studying.
He was orphaned at a very young age when King Kamehameha consolidated power on the Island. `Ōpūkaha`ia lived with his uncle who was a priest for sometime and was studying to be a successor in the footsteps of his uncle’s before he met Captain Caleb Britnall, a New Haven Connecticut business man whose ship “the Truimph” had harbored at the big Island enroute to trade in China. `Ōpūkaha`ia decided to leave Hawaii and travel to America with Captain Britnall, Joining a fellow Hawaiian Thomas PAGE 12
He was so hungry for knowledge that he was seen by Edwin Dwight, a Yale student, at the entry footsteps of the college weeping. Those days were where when education was supposed to be given only to the privileged and to the evolved “race,” so it was an extra kind effort that Yale student Timothy Dwight took upon himself to begin See TREASURE page 13
