Daughter of a Double Race

I love looking at the archived black and white photo images of Princess Kaiulani, the beautiful hapa-haole princess who had been chosen by Queen Liliuokalani as heir apparent.  Kaiulani’s story, like many others of Hawaiian royal lineage, was not destined to have a happy ending.  She died when she was 23, after seeing her Aunt Liliuokalani, the Queen, dethroned and the Kingdom of Hawaii annexed by the Americans.  Kaiulani lives forever young in images, with her ageless transcendent beauty.  Her father was the Scotsman Archibald Cleghorn, who chose to stay in Hawaii as the place to make his living and start his family.  Her mother was Miriam Likelike, sister to King Kalakaua and Queen Liliuokalani.  When she was a teenager, Kaiulani was sent to the land of her father, Great Britain, for her formal schooling. Princess Kaiulani, from the Hawaii State Archives

       I wanted to portray her in color, imagining the color of her glowing skin and with a touch of the modern to her ball gown.  Her oval face would be composed and of royal bearing, and eyes would convey wisdom with a measure of sadness.                 When she left the Islands to travel to Great Britain for school, the poet Robert Louis Stevenson, who also hailed from Scotland and had been staying in Hawaii at the time, wrote a poem for Kaiulani.  The beginning of that poem reads:  “Forth from her land to mine she goes, The island maid, the island rose, Light of heart and bright of face: The daughter of a double race.” From “To Princess Kaiulani” by R.L.S.