The Queen and I

In this expose Sydney L. Iaukea ties personal memories to newly procured political information about Hawaii's crucial Territorial era. Spurred by questions surrounding intergenerational property disputes in her immediate family, she delves into Hawaii's historical archives. There she discovers the central role played by her great-great-grandfather in the politics of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Hawaii--in particular, Curtis P. Iaukea's trusted position with the Hawaiian Kingdom's last ruling monarch, Queen Liliuokalani. As Iaukea charts her ancestor's efforts to defend a culture under siege, she reveals astonishing legal and legislative maneuvers that show us how capitalism reshaped cultural relationships. She finds resonant parallels and connections between her own upbringing in Maui's housing projects, her family's penchant for hiding property, and the Hawaiian peoples' loss of their country and lands.