UH Hilo hālau honors college namesake Ruth Keʻelikōlani
Hula hālau Hui Hanakahi, under the direction of Kumu Pele Harman and Kumu Kekoa Harman, performed tribute honoring Ruth Keʻelikōlani at UH Hilo’s 2026 International Night dance production.
Hui Hanakahi begins their International Night performance honoring Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani at 37:17 in the video above.
By Lauren Aoki/UH Hilo Stories.
At the annual dance production of International Night held on Feb. 27, where groups of University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo students share their cultures through dance, a hula hālau of Hilo dancers opened the show with a beautiful tribute to Chiefess Ruth Keʻelikōlani Keanolani Kanāhoahoa (1826-1883).
“Being that February is Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian Language Month), and our Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani College of Hawaiian Language is named for her, and this is a milestone birthday (for her), it just felt timely and pono,” says Pelehonuamea Harman, kumu hula of the hālau and UH Hilo’s director of Native Hawaiian engagement.
Friday’s performance was held to honor the 200th anniversary of Luka Keʻelikōlani’s birthday in 1826. The chiefess is remembered today for her fervent dedication to traditional Hawaiian language and customs. She served as the Governor of the Island of Hawaiʻi and was godmother to Princess Kaiʻulani. She was also heir to the Kamehameha line and inherited much of the land that would transition to Bernice Puahi Bishop, who would later found Kamehameha Schools. It is for this and more that UH Hilo’s College of Hawaiian Language — Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani — is named in her memory.
Pele Harman and her husband Kekoa Harman, a UH Hilo associate professor of Hawaiian studies and language, are kumu hula (hula teachers) for their own hālau, and created this fifteen-minute performance for International Night’s opening presenting mele, hula, and oli (chant) connected to Chiefess Keʻelikōlani.
“We called our group Hui Hanakahi because we come from different huis (groups) including our hālau, Hālau I Ka Leo Ola O Nā Mamo, students and kumu from Ka Haka ʻUla o Keʻelikōlani who are not in our hālau, and we invited Hanakahi council members as well to join in and represent Hawaiʻi,” says Pele.
Mele, hula, and oli honoring a remarkable life
The hālau, dressed in a mixture of red, black, and white with dancers of all ages, opened their performance with “Poloʻai O Keʻelikōlani” (Messagee of Keʻelikōlani), the college’s song created in her honor by Kaipo Frias.
The second mele was “Wahine Lei ʻUla” (Woman with a Red Lei), which was performed with silk handkerchiefs and was written by the late Hauani Bernardino, a beloved UH Hilo associate professor of Hawaiian language. The red handkerchiefs reference the same ones offered by Keʻelikōlani alongside brandy and a lock of her own hair to the goddess Pele to prevent the 1880 Mauna Loa eruption’s lava flow from destroying Hilo.
Next was “A Luna Au O Maunaloa” (I am above Maunaloa), another college song, which was adapted from a 1883 edition of the Hawaiian language newspaper Ke Au ʻOkoʻa I Hui ʻIa. It references Hilo and the Halemaʻumaʻu crater before concluding with Keʻelikōlani’s full name.
Next performed was “A Hilo Au” (I was at Hilo), an oli created for Liholiho, King Kamehameha II, which also references Hilo, his birth place, and Maunaloa.
Following was “Aia i Honolulu” (There at Honolulu), an oli that references Keʻelikolani’s birth place in Pohukaina, Oʻahu, in 1826. In an informative postscript description given in reference to the purpose of this chant, and reproduced here in recognition of the purpose of the hālau’s performance, Keʻelikōlani’s life is described:
Princess Ruth Keʻelikolani Kauanahoahoa (1826-1883) born at Pohukaina on Oahu, was the half-sister of Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V and Princess Victoria Kamamalu. Described as the largest and richest woman of her time, her sad life was marked by the death of all her loved ones. Her natural mother Kalani Pauahi died giving birth to Ruth, and her guardian, Queen Kaahumanu, died when she was 6 years old. Her step-mother, Chiefess Elisabeta Kinau, died when she was 13 and her beloved first husband, Leleiohoku, died of measles in 1848, at age 22. She had 2 children from this marriage, one dying in infancy and the other, William Pitt Kinau dying in 1859, at age 17. Her hanai son, Prince William Pitt Kalahoolewa Leleiohoku, the younger brother of King Kalakaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani, died April 10, 1877, at age 23.
Her 2nd marriage to Isaac Davis, in 1856, was not particularly happy, but it did produce a child who also died in infancy. She loved children dearly, but many were frightened by her size. Six feet tall and over 400 pounds, she was not attractive, her nose being disfigured in an operation to correct a nasal disease. She resisted Christianity, refused to speak English, a language she knew and understood very well, and clung to Hawaiian culture. Hula dancers and chanters were a part of her life and greatly influenced her hanai son, Leleiohoku, a gifted composer with exceptional musical ability.
In later years, bitter over her losses, she was controversial, greatly loved or greatly feared.
November 5, 1880, the flank of Mauna Loa erupted and continued to flow 60 miles to the edge of Hilo. By August, 1881, the menacing lava threatened the town where fervent prayer meetings were being held. Finally, the desperate Hawaiians went to Princess Ruth and begged for her help. She listened to their pleas travelled to the island of Hawaii, in spite of her poor health, and on the night of August 9, went to intercede with Pele. Ordering her followers to keep their distance, she approached the edge of the volcano in the area known as Puuhalai, with about 30 red silk handkerchiefs, brandy, and a lock of her hair; gifts for the fire goddess. Many spectators say the Princess actually walked on the hot molten lava as she chanted her prayers. That night she slept at the edge of the lava flow and by dawn the molten lava stopped within a yard of Ruth’s sleeping body. The Princess had performed a miracle.
Kaakopua, on Queen Emma street, the home of Ruth and her hanai son, Leleiohoku, burned down October, 1873. Here is where the Princess built her Victorian mansion, Keoua Hale, the present site of Central Intermediate School. The most expensive residence at that time, took 2 years to construct, and was completed February, 1883. A grand luau with over 1000 guests was held to celebrate Ruth’s birthday and house warming. Ruth never lived in her new mansion. She became ill the day after the celebrations and under doctor’s orders, went to Kailua-Kona to improve her health. She retired to a grass hut on the grounds of Hulihee Palace, where she died May 24, 1883, close to the spot where her great grandfather, Kamehameha I, died in 1819. Her vast fortune was left to Bernice Pauahi Bishop, her nearest living relative.
Finally, the halau’s performance at the 2026 International Night production concluded with a rendition of “Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī” (Hawaiʻi’s Own) when the entire audience stood to sing together. Written by King David Kalākaua, “Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī” has been the Hawaiʻi anthem since 1876 and is traditionally sung at public events.
And the mission to spread the islands’ ancestral language continues
Pele Harman, who teaches mele and hula all year long, says preparation for the performance didn’t take much additional time to pull together, just minor tweaks in timing.
“We teach hula and mele all year long to our haumāna (students) so pulling the program together did not take much in the way of extra practice,” she says, noting that time constraints resulted in swift but seamless transitions between songs and chants.
Much of Harman’s work on campus relates to renormalizing and reintegrating Hawaiian tradition back into everyday life.
As part of her work as a representative of Hawaiʻi Papa o Ke Ao (also known as the Hawaiʻi Foundation of Enlightenment/Knowledge, a UH System committee dedicated to strengthening Indigenous education), and heading several Hawaiian cultural-based campus initiatives (including Mālama ʻĀina Campus Beautification Day, ʻŌlelo Resource of the Month, and lectures with the series Kuleana and Community), Harman advocates for all students, faculty and staff to learn and gain an understanding of Hawaiian culture and ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi regardless of ethnic background to help spread the island’s ancestral language.
“A major goal of our hālau hula as well as Ka Haka ʻUla is to renormalize the use of our language and traditions like the hula,” she says.
Ruth Keʻelikōlani, who was beautifully honored at this year’s International Night event, had a similar perspective and was famously known for her refusal to speak English despite being fluent. She spoke ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi even when it required a translator.
February 9, 2026, marked her 200th birthday.
Story by Lauren Aoki, an English major with a minor in anthropology at UH Hilo. She is literary editor at the university’s student publications Kanilehua and Hohonu.
