{"id":8144,"date":"2026-06-12T09:27:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T19:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/?p=8144"},"modified":"2026-06-12T09:27:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T19:27:03","slug":"dr-keanu-sai-delivers-tribute-to-king-kamehameha-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/dr-keanu-sai-delivers-tribute-to-king-kamehameha-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Keanu Sai Delivers Tribute to King Kamehameha I"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday, June 11th, was a Hawaiian Kingdom national holiday honoring King Kamehameha I the father of the Hawaiian Kingdom. The Daughters and Sons of Hawaiian Warriors – M\u0101makakaua<\/em> have stood watch at the ceremony honoring Kamehameha I at his statue fronting Ali\u02bbiolani Hale, the government building, since June 11, 1914. The statue was unveiled by King Kal\u0101kaua on February 14, 1883. Attending the ceremony were other Hawaiian Royal Orders and Societies.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Dr. Keanu Sai was invited by the leadership of The Daughters and Sons of Hawaiian Warriors – M\u0101makakaua<\/em> to give a tribute speech to Kamehameha. Here follows the speech Dr. Sai gave that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We gather today to commemorate Kamehameha I, Pai\u2018ea, the father of our country, the Hawaiian Kingdom. Kamehameha was not merely a great ali\u2018i; he was the chief whose leadership brought the Hawaiian Islands under one kingdom and established the foundation of our country. By 1810, through conquest and agreement, the islands were consolidated under his rule, and the country came to be known in the nineteenth century as the Hawaiian Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important, on this day, that we remember Kamehameha not only as a warrior and ali\u02bbi, but as the head of a developing nation. On February 24, 1794, while King of Hawai\u02bbi Island, Kamehameha entered into an agreement with Captain George Vancouver that placed Hawai\u02bbi under British protection. This relationship helps explain why the Union Jack appears on our national flag. The flag we see today is not the flag of the State of Hawai\u02bbi. It is the national flag of the Hawaiian Kingdom formally established by the Hawaiian Legislature in 1845.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the reign of Kamehameha III, Kauikeaouli, the Hawaiian Kingdom became a constitutional monarchy in 1840. Three years later, on November 28, 1843, it was transformed from a British protectorate into an independent State \u2014 an event now commemorated as L\u0101 K\u016b\u02bboko\u02bba, Hawaiian Independence Day. This is another important national holiday, alongside Kamehameha Day, which was declared in 1872 by Kamehameha\u2019s grandson, King Kamehameha V, Lot Kapu\u0101iwa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My name is Dr. David Keanu Sai, and I serve as Acting Minister of the Interior and Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs ad interim<\/em> for the Council of Regency of the Hawaiian Kingdom. The Council of Regency also includes His Excellency Dexter Ka\u02bbiama, Acting Attorney General, and Her Excellency Kau\u02bbi Sai-Dudoit, Acting Minister of Finance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 1999 to 2001, the Council of Regency represented the Hawaiian Kingdom as an independent State under an American occupation before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands. In the Larsen case, I served as lead agent of the legal team, with His Excellency Minister Umialiloa Sai serving as deputy agent, His Excellency Gary Dubin, acting Attorney General, serving as second deputy agent, and Her Excellency Minister Kau\u2018i Sai-Dudoit serving as third deputy agent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On December 12, 2000, the national flag of the Hawaiian Kingdom was unfurled at The Hague alongside the national flags of Germany, France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. That moment was significant because it placed the Hawaiian Kingdom within an international setting, alongside other countries, and affirmed the Council\u2019s position that the Hawaiian Kingdom continues to exist under international law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

British novelist Donald James once wrote, \u201cwhen a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since returning from oral hearings at the Permanent Court in December 2000, the Council of Regency has undertaken the work of restoring Hawaiian Kingdom national consciousness in the minds of the people through academic research, education, and publishing. This work is necessary because generations that have been subjected to Americanization obscured their understanding of the legal and political history of our country and narrowed our understanding of who we are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her Excellency Kau\u02bbi Sai-Dudoit has been the director of the Hawaiian language newspaper project, Ho\u02bbolaupa\u02bbi <\/em>and currently He Aupuni Palapala<\/em>, and has worked to bring 114 years of Hawaiian knowledge back into contemporary spaces. As the Programs Director of Awaiaulu, she has built an online history resource for educators called K\u012bpapa Educator Resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After receiving my Ph.D. in political science from the University of Hawai\u02bbi at M\u0101noa in 2008, I authored in 2011 Ua Mau Ke Ea\u2014Sovereignty Endures: The Legal and Political History of the Hawaiian Islands<\/em>, which is a history book currently utilized in Hawai\u02bbi schools and early college courses. My most recent publication Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s Sovereignty and Survival in the Age of Empire <\/em>was published in 2024 by the renowned Oxford University Press in London. That work, together with the broader educational efforts of the Council and its members, is part of restoring knowledge of the Hawaiian Kingdom as a continuing State under international law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, as we honor Kamehameha Pai\u2018ea, we are not looking backward. We are remembering the foundation of a country, the continuity of its national identity, and the duty we carry to restore Hawaiian national consciousness. Kamehameha\u2019s legacy is not confined to the past. It continues in the work of remembering, teaching, and acting from the knowledge that the Hawaiian Kingdom endures. Hawai\u2018i is not the 50th State of the United States. It is the occupied State of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Let us recall, as we move forward, the words of our great leader, Kamehameha Pai\u02bbea: \u201cI mua e n\u0101 p\u014dki\u02bbi, a inu i ka wai \u02bbawa\u02bbawa. \u02bbA\u02bbohe hope i ho\u02bbi mai ai.\u201d Go forward, young warriors, and drink the bitter waters, for there is no turning back.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, June 11th, was a Hawaiian Kingdom national holiday honoring King Kamehameha I the father of the Hawaiian Kingdom. The Daughters and Sons of Hawaiian Warriors – M\u0101makakaua have stood watch at the ceremony honoring Kamehameha I at his statue … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"0","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-national"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31YBQ-27m","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8144"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8152,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8144\/revisions\/8152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}