Na Wahine Kue: Women in Resistance
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
5:00-6:30 PM (HST)
We honor the close of Women’s History Month with a virtual reenactment of beloved play, “Ka Lei Maile Alii – The Queen’s Women” written by Helen Edyth “Didi” Malie Lincoln Lee Kwai. This powerful play has been performed for years by Hui Aloha Aina o Ka Lei Maile Alii in community spaces across the islands as a way to embody and intimately feel our histories and ancestors, and carry kuleana into the future.
This thoughtful virtual adaptation of “Ka Lei Maile Alii” has been created by director Tammy Hailiopua Baker, Kanaka Maoli cast members Leleae Kahalepuna Wong as Emma Aima Nawahi, Kealohi Reppun as Abigail Kuaihelani Campbell (a descendant of Kuaihelani), and students from Hana Keaka: The Hawaiian Theatre Program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Opening presentation by author and educator Dr. Noenoe K. Silva, who shares the history and impact of the Kue Petitions and what we have learned since she recovered them over twenty years ago in the National Archives of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. The program will close with a live Q&A with Dr. Silva, cast members, and community leader and educator Dr. Lynette Cruz of Hui Aloha Aina o Ka Lei Maile Alii.
We deeply thank the many voices and ancestors who care for and keep these histories alive, and look forward to sharing this special event with you.
Speaker Bios
Dr. Noenoe Silva is an author and Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she teaches courses on Olelo Hawaii and Hawaiian and indigenous politics. She’s contributed immensely to Hawaii scholarship with her books, Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism and The Power of the Steel-tipped Pen: Reconstructing Native Hawaiian Intellectual History. In the late 90s, Noenoe’s research led her to locate and retrieve copies of the Kue Petitions from the National Archives in Washington, DC.
Hailiopua Baker is an Associate Professor and Director of the Hawaiian Theatre Program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she teaches Hawaiian Theatre and Language, Pacific and Indigenous Theatre, and Playwriting. Her work focuses on indigenous Hawaiian theatre aesthetic and form, Hawaiian language revitalization, and the empowerment of cultural identity through stage performance.
