Kekūanaōʻa
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Kekūanaōʻa}}
{{Short description|Kuhina Nui of the Hawaiian Islands and Governor of Oahu (c. 1791–1868)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2012}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name =Kekūanaōʻa
| title =Kuhina Nui of the Hawaiian Islands and Governor of Oʻahu
| image =Kekuanaoa5.jpg
| image_size = 200px
| alt = Kekūanaōʻa
| succession =Kuhina Nui of the Hawaiian Islands
| reign = December 21, 1863 – August 24, 1864
| predecessor =Kaʻahumanu IV
| successor =position abolished
| succession1 =Royal Governor of Oʻahu
| reign1 =1834–1868
| predecessor1 =John Adams Kuakini
| successor1 =John Owen Dominis
| spouse =Kalehua
Pauahi
Kīnaʻu
Kaloloahilani
| issue =Paʻalua
Ruth Keʻelikōlani (legally recognized)
David Kamehameha
Moses Kekūāiwa
Lot Kapuāiwa
Alexander Liholiho
Victoria Kamāmalu
| mother = Inaina
| father = Kiʻilaweau
| full name =Mataio (Matthew) Keawenui Kekūanaōʻa
| house = Mahi, Moana, Kamehameha
| birth_date =c. January 1791
| birth_place =Hilo
| death_date ={{Death date|1868|11|24}} (aged 77)
| death_place =Pakakanene, Honolulu, Oʻahu{{cite news |title= Death of His Highness Mataio Kekuanaoa |newspaper= The Pacific Commercial Advertiser |date= November 28, 1868 |url= http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015418/1868-11-28/ed-1/seq-2/ |access-date= May 28, 2014}}
| burial_date =December 22, 1868{{cite book |editor= David W. Forbes |title= Hawaiian national bibliography, 1780–1900 |volume= 3 |publisher= University of Hawaii Press |year=2001 |page= 469 |isbn= 0-8248-2503-9 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=lB_F9CffeN8C}}
| place of burial =Mauna ʻAla Royal Mausoleum
| signature =M. Kekuanaoa 1850 signature.jpg
|}}
Mataio Kekūanaōʻa ({{circa|1791}} – November 24, 1868), formally referred to as His Honor or His Highness, was a Hawaiian politician who served as governor of the island of Oʻahu, father of two kings, Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V, and held the office of Kuhina Nui as did his wife, Kīnaʻu and their daughter, Victoria Kamāmalu.
Parentage and early life
His first name Mataio, which he adopted later in life, is the Hawaiian form of Matthew. Kekūanaōʻa translates as "the standing projection" in the Hawaiian language and refers to the masts of Western ships seen in the harbor at his birth.{{cite book|last1=Pukui|first1=Mary Kawena|author-link1=Mary Kawena Pukui|last2=Elbert|first2=Samuel H.|last3=Mookini|first3=Esther T.|title=Place Names of Hawaii|url=https://archive.org/details/placenamesofhawa0000puku|url-access=registration|date=1974|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|location=Honolulu|isbn=978-0-8248-0524-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/placenamesofhawa0000puku/page/106 106]}}
Kekūanaōʻa was born sometime around the year 1791.{{cite book|author=David W. Forbes|title=Hawaiian National Bibliography, Vol 3: 1851–1880|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lB_F9CffeN8C&pg=PA469|year=1998|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-2503-4|page=469}}{{cite book|author=Kristin Zambucka|title=The High Chiefess, Ruth Keelikolani|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iZNpEIgcNHAC&pg=PA13|year=1977|publisher=Kristin Zambucka Books|page=13|id=GGKEY:2LWYXGZDYAZ}} His mother is believed to be Inaina.{{cite book|author1=Abraham Fornander|author2=John F. G. Stokes|title=An Account of the Polynesian Race: Its Origins and Migrations, and the Ancient History of the Hawaiian People to the Times of Kamehameha I.|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_tcQNAAAAQAAJ|year=1880|publisher=Trubner & Company}}{{rp|223}} While an obituary at his death identified his father as Nāhiʻōleʻa, on March 14, 1879 the Hawaiian Supreme court identified Kiʻilaweau as the father of Kekuanaoa in probate using the genealogy books of the royal family, proving a legal bloodline line from Keʻelikōlani back to Kiʻilaweau's grandmother, Moana.{{cite book|title=Hawaii Reports: Cases Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Hawaii|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fpk0AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA632|year=1893|publisher=Valenti Brothers Graphics|page=632}}
John Papa ʻĪʻī's uncle Nāhiʻōleʻa, the aliʻi that took Kalanikapule's side against Kamehameha I and was killed by his cousins, was listed in the newspaper Ke Au Okoa as Kekūanaōʻa's father; however, in the chant for Nakanealoha, the name of Kiʻilaweau is mentioned as a makua. This makes some believe he had two fathers,{{cite book |title= Fragments of Hawaiian History |year=1983 |publisher=Bishop Museum Press |author= John Papa Īī, Mary Kawena Pukui, Dorothy B. Barrère |edition= 2 | isbn =0-910240-31-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qcW0AAAAIAAJ}}{{rp|146}} a tradition called poʻolua.{{cite book|author=James L. Haley|title=Captive Paradise: A History of Hawaii|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ooKBAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA79|date=4 November 2014|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-1-4668-5550-2|page=79}} Kiʻilaweau was an aliʻi of the highest rank.{{cite web|last1=Kawaikaumaiikamakaokaopua|first1=Z. P. K.|title=Z. P. K. Kawaikaumaiikamakaokaopua's treatise on canoe building, 1922.|url=http://nupepa-hawaii.com/tag/kiilaweau/|website=Nupepa|date=May 20, 2014 |publisher=nupepa-hawaii.com|access-date=10 December 2015}} While Kekūanaōʻa's children were not as high ranking as Kamehameha II or Kamehameha III, Kekūanaōʻa descends from Keawehanauikawalu, the son of Lonoikamakahiki, his line was considered high-ranking.{{cite book|author=Edith Kawelohea McKinzie|title=Hawaiian Genealogies: Extracted from Hawaiian Language Newspapers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-YPNBdfvmDUC&pg=PA95|date=1 January 1983|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-939154-28-9|page=95}}
Political career
He was the Royal Governor of Oʻahu 1839–1864.{{cite web|url=http://archives1.dags.hawaii.gov/gsdl/collect/governme/index/assoc/HASH01e7.dir/doc.pdf |access-date=October 19, 2009 |title=Governor of Oahu |work=official archives |publisher=State of Hawaii |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721042609/http://archives1.dags.hawaii.gov/gsdl/collect/governme/index/assoc/HASH01e7.dir/doc.pdf |archive-date=July 21, 2011 }} On December 21, 1863 he was made the sixth Kuhina Nui, replacing his daughter who became Crown Princess and heir apparent to the throne. For most of his reign as Kuhina Nui he supported his son Kamehameha V's view of abolishing the position. He held the position until 1864 when the Constitution of 1864 abolished it. He also served as a member of the House of Nobles from 1841–1868, Privy Council 1845–1869, and as President of the Board of Education from 1860.{{cite web|url=http://archives1.dags.hawaii.gov/gsdl/collect/governme/index/assoc/HASH373e/63d6560e.dir/Kakuanaoa,%20Mateo.jpg |access-date=November 25, 2009 |title=Kekuanaoa, Mateo office record |work=official archives |publisher=State of Hawaii |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007003956/http://archives1.dags.hawaii.gov/gsdl/collect/governme/index/assoc/HASH373e/63d6560e.dir/Kakuanaoa%2C%20Mateo.jpg |archive-date=October 7, 2011 }} In 1866, Mark Twain wrote of Mataio Kekūanaōʻa: "[A] man of noble presence.." and "[S]eemingly natural and fitted to the place as if he had been born to it...."{{cite book| author=Mark Twain |title=Roughing It |chapter=LXVII |year=1872 |publisher=David Widger |chapter-url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3177/3177-h/3177-h.htm }}
The Territorial Building in the Hawaii Capital Historic District was named for him.{{cite news |title= Territorial Office Building is district's underrated gem |author= Burl Burlingame |date= June 27, 2004 |newspaper= Honolulu Star-Bulletin |url= http://archives.starbulletin.com/2004/06/27/travel/story3.html |access-date= October 11, 2010 }}
Personal life
Kekūanaōʻa was the punahele, or intimate companion of King Kamehameha II in his youth,{{cite book |title= The Victorian visitors: an account of the Hawaiian Kingdom, 1861–1866, including the journal letters of Sophia Cracroft: extracts from the journals of Lady Franklin, and diaries and letters of Queen Emma of Hawaii |editor= Alfons L. Korn |publisher= The University Press of Hawaii |year= 1958 |isbn= 978-0-87022-421-8 |page= 304|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4YsrAQAAIAAJ |author= Sophia Cracroft, Lady Franklin, Queen Emma of Hawaii}} and followed him to England where the King and Queen Kamāmalu died of measles in 1824. He was able to escape the sickness and return to Hawaii.
On the return journey, he was baptized by the chaplain of the British warship {{HMS|Blonde|1819|6}}.{{cite book |last1=Chorley |first1=Edward Clowes |last2=Stowe |first2=Walter Herbert |last3=Brown |first3=Lawrence L. |title=Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church |date=1949 |publisher=Church Historical Society. |pages=47 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b7vSAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}
Back in Hawaii, he stabilizes himself in the court by marrying two wives of his late sovereign. His first marriage to Kalehua was from 1822 to 1825, and the product of this marriage was a son named Paʻaula. He married again to Pauahi, the widow of Kamehameha II. Their marriage lasted only months, from November 1825 to her death in February 1826. He is considered the father of her daughter Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani.
He remarried Elizabeth Kīnaʻu, another Kamehameha II widow, who ruled as the Kuhina Nui at the time under the name Kaʻahumanu II. From her he fathered David Kamehameha, Moses Kekūāiwa, Lot Kapuāiwa, Alexander Liholiho, and Victoria Kamāmalu. His sons Alexander and Lot would become King Kamehameha IV and King Kamehameha V. His daughter would become the fifth Kuhina Nui as Kaʻahumanu IV. The third marriage lasted from 1827 until Kīnaʻu's death in 1839. After 6 years as a widower he remarried again in 1845, to the High Chiefess Kaloloahilani.[http://ags.hawaii.gov/archives/centennial-exhibit/mataio-kekuanaoa/ Mataio Kekūanaōʻa] Hawaii Department of Accounting and General Services The marriage resulted in the birth of a son on November 28, 1846.Journal, Amos Starr Cooke, December 1, 1846. Vol. 8, p. 14., Honolulu: Hawaiian Mission Houses Library.
References
{{Commons category|Kekūanaōʻa}}
{{reflist}}
{{S-start}}
{{succession box|title=Royal Governor of Oʻahu|before=John Adams Kuakini||after=John Owen Dominis|years=1839–1864}}
{{succession box|title=Kuhina Nui of the Hawaiian Islands|before=Kaʻahumanu IV|after=Position Abolished|years=December 21, 1863 – August 24, 1864}}
{{S-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kekuanaoa, Mataio}}
Category:Royalty of the Hawaiian Kingdom
Category:Hawaiian Kingdom politicians
Category:Members of the Hawaiian Kingdom House of Nobles
Category:Members of the Hawaiian Kingdom Privy Council