Hidden Treasure Across DOT Headquarters

Hawaiian History: Hidden Treasure Across DOT Hawaiian History: Hidden Treasure Across DOT Headquarters 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 fi rst Kahu, who himself was inspired to leave family and friends to come to Hawaii with the fi rst group of missionaries, to teach the people of Hawai‘i.

Bingham and his wife Sybil, buried their fi rst son at the same church compound after the fi rst 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 fi rst 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 testimony of the tenacity of the faith of the people of Hawaii.

Henry `Ōpūkaha`ia was born in 1792 in the Island of Hawai’i (Big Island) to Keaau and Kamohoula.

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 Hopu, whose friendship lasted a lifetime, who was a deckhand on the Ship.

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 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 eff ort that Yale student Timothy Dwight took upon himself to begin

Everyone is encouraged to visit the Kawaiha‘o Church, just across the DOT headquarters, to explore its rich history.

timony of the tenacity of fithfth l f Hopu, whose friendship lasted lifti h dkh d

Henry `Ōpūkaha`ia was the fi rst known Christian from Hawaiian heritage.

tutoring `Ōpūkaha`ia the English language.

This was also the possibly remarkable Darwinian assumption, before even Darwin proposed it, that people from other cultures were not as evolved as the Caucasians and could not be educated at all to the level that Caucasians could attain, and such and other prejudices including out-right slavery kept many out of reach of the body of knowledge that was available at that time.

Ōpūkaha`ia surprised everyone by not only his acumen for English but began studying science and mathematics on his own.

Ōpūkaha`ia is described as a sprightly active lad, of uncommon agility of body, mild and modest, inquisitive mind, ingenious, and inventive, aff ectionate and kind so that no one could get off ended by him. Because of the eff orts of many people including one of Ōpūkaha`ia closest friends, Samuel Mills, `Ōpūkaha`ia became the fi rst known Christian from Hawaiian heritage.

Again, `Ōpūkaha`ia, on his initiative began reducing the Hawaiian language into writing and translating the Bible by going back to the root languages Hebrew and Greek with little formal education, except assistance from other students.

Ōpūkaha`ia infl uence began to exert itself in New England from his early days in both showing the excellence of Hawaiian people but also the Aloha Spirit that characterized his new found faith. He shared to all that he met, young and old the truths he learned from the Bible and cautioned those who felt that they were to take the faith lightly.

Providence had it that Ōpūkaha`ia, though he much desired to return to Hawaii to bless his people with the knowledge he gained of the Savior of the World, to die in 1818, the at an early age of 26 years, of Typhus Fever.

At about the same time, Ōpūkaha`ia’s dear friend, Samuel Mills, with whom he was looking forward to come to Hawaii, also died on a trip to the frontier areas of the US.

Yet, Ōpūkaha`ia left a memoir which was published by the people who have loved and cared for Ōpūkaha`ia inspired a whole new young New Englanders and raised awareness of the need to reach the people of Hawaii (also known at that as the Sandwich Islands) with the message of the good news of Jesus Christ.

Next month 50 representatives from Kawaiaha‘o Church will return to Boston and celebrate the commissioning of the fi rst missionary group at the very Church it started, the Historic Park Street Church, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the send off .

The rest is still more history. Find out more by going across the street to view Henry Ōpūkaha`ia ’s portrait, the cornerstone that houses the fi rst Hawaiian Language Bible, Scientifi c Books on engineering and medicine and pay a visit to the mission houses to see the original buildings that housed the families of missionaries and the historical society right next door to browse the amazing archives of the Hawaiiana literature.

Some references that this excerpt is derived from are found in two books:

1. “Memoirs of Henry Ōpūkaha`ia “ by Edwin W. Dwight

2. “The Providential Life and Heritage of Henry Obookiah” by Christopher L. Cook