Lehua, The Sacred Flower
Gene J. Parola
Written by Admin   
Saturday, 11 October 2008

Image Coming in the spring of 2010.  A coming of age novel set in old Hawai'i and the first in the series of stories set on Molokai--Molokai pule-oo [powerful prayer] .

In the spring of 1819 King Ka-me-ha-me-ha I died after reigning for a peaceful decade over the first unified Kingdom of Hawai'i.  His young son, Li-ho-li-ho, became Ka-me-ha-me-ha II, but effective control of the government was inherited by the old king's favorite wife, Ku-hina Nui [Queen Regent], Ka'a-hu-ma-nu.  That fall, under the queen's influence
 
Li-ho-li-ho was forced to abandon the native Ha-wa-ii-an religion.
    
Amid the ensuing confusion, the first contingent of Calvinist missionaries arrived five months later. It was a death sentence to the 3000 year old Ka-na-ka Ma-oli culture;
    

Gene Parola
Author Gene Parola
Le-hua-lia-kahu-ama-lio-aka-lani-pa'aka-lo-le  [Lehua] the fictitious young chiefess of this novel comes of age at this trying moment in Ha-wa-ii-an history. Her divine ancestry gives her the right, responsibility and ability to be a leader of her people, but with 'the lifting of the ka-pu,' [the rejection of the old religion], she is suddenly bereft of her divine reason to be.  Beset by doubt, alien temptations and a welter of rational, if frightening, options, she makes a life for herself, her mixed race o-ha-na [family] and her circle of influence--astride the divergent forces that will ultimately doom her culture.  
    
American businessmen overthrew the Republic of Hawai'i and in 1898 gave the islands to the United States.
 
Tong Ah Tim, Ah Hin and Me-le are names from my o-ha-na and are used in memoriam.         

                                                  
Last Updated ( Monday, 08 February 2010 )