Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen

In celebration of the birthday month of our Queen, presales will be open the entire month of September, closing on October 1st, 2023. Orders will be fulfilled by mid-November. For wholesale orders, please get in touch with lihau@nativebookshawaii.org.

This story is a first-person narrative from Queen Liliʻuokalani, a Hawaiian leader at the epicenter of change in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. The Queen’s autobiography will help readers understand the complex history of Hawaiʻi, the nature of Hawaiian people, and their deep commitment to aloha ‘āina–love of country and the continuation of a sovereign future. 

The internationally recognized nation of Hawaiʻi was overthrown in 1893. Queen Liliʻuokalani wrote her autobiography, Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen, in Boston in 1898, while waiting to present her case for restoring the Hawaiian nation to the Congress of the United States. 

America was a country with an active treaty with the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi at the time of the overthrow. A group of businessmen who had pledged their citizenship to the Kingdom of Hawai’i, in an act of treason, organized the overthrow of a sitting monarch. This same group was embedded in the Islands’ expanding sugar industry and would profit significantly from this arrangement. 

This lāhui edition is reprinted from the first edition of the first printing of the Queen’s story. Deepening our understanding of the history of Hawaiʻi will bring pono forward for kānaka ʻōiwi, the people of Hawaiʻi, and humanity. The words of Queen Liliʻuokalani help all of us understand our hana, the work we must do together to create pilina, trusting relationships, inspired by the Queen’s legacy of aloha, and care for all people of this resilient and reaffirming lāhui.

Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono.