Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives (HMH) annual gala fundraiser “Huakaʻi: Ma Ō Ka ‘Aina: Ma Ō Ke Kai” will be held Saturday, September 14, 2024, 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm at The Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Monarch Room. This special evening celebrates the journey the missionaries made to Hawaiʻi and around Hawaiʻi and the Pacific more than two hundred years ago.
Our evening begins at 5 pm with guests enjoying sunset specialty cocktails on the lawn overlooking Waikīkī Beach with Lēʻahi (Diamond Head) in view, while perusing an exciting silent auction. A seated dinner is served at 6 pm followed by a special themed program of mele, oli, and hula, interwoven with HMH’s award-winning historical theatre portrayals, and an exciting LIVE auction.
The history of the missionary impact on Hawaiian culture is complex and multi-faceted. HMH seeks to share our historic site and interpret the early to mid-19th Century period in Hawaiʻi and the stories of the missionaries, native Hawaiians, and others, whose lives intersected on this and associated sites throughout the state of Hawaiʻi. In 2024, we expanded on our interpretative materials and programs around our reconstruction of the 1823 hale pili o nā mikanele (grass house in the missionary style), built using cultural practitioner leadership and designed with sources from journals in the HMH archives.
Your support for Huaka’i helps us host almost 50 schools and over 3,400 students on our site to learn about Hawai‘i’s history from our resources, and offer Title I schools scholarships and bus transportation for field trips.“I was really surprised when you said about 75 percent of Hawaiians were reading and writing after forty-one years of the missionaries being there,” wrote a 6th grader. We ask for your support so that we can continue to expand access and tell this rich history.
