Solomon Islands, Host of the 11th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Cover Image: Masthead of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa published on November 26, 1897.
Aloha Nūhou Monday!
This week we honor the Solomon Islands which, in 2012, became the 11th nation to host the Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture. This festival was held in its capital city, Honiara, and celebrated the theme of “Culture in Harmony with Nature.”
The Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture is the world’s largest celebration of Indigenous Pacific Islanders, bringing together artists, cultural practitioners, scholars, and officials from member nations of the Pacific Community (SPC).
This traveling festival is held every four years and was first launched by the South Pacific Commission in 1972 to halt the erosion of traditional practices through ongoing cultural exchange. In June of 2024, Hawaiʻi will host the 13th festival on Oʻahu.
Over the months, we have been honoring each of the previous FestPAC hosts with posts featuring those island nations and their connections to Hawaiʻi’s own history.
While the Solomon Islands are regarded as a Melanesian nation. Sikaiana Atoll (Stewart’s Island), the subject of today’s post, sticks out among the Solomon Islands as one of only 16 Pacific cultures referred to as “Polynesian Outliers.” What this means is that despite being situated within Melanesia (and outside of the Polynesian Triangle), the inhabitants of Sikaiana share close cultural, linguistic, and genealogical ties with their fellow Polynesians.
Due in large part to this close affinity Hawaiian leadership of the 1850s felt towards their Polynesian kin, when approached with the opportunity to annex the atoll, Kamehameha IV Alexander Liholiho and his cabinet deliberated extensively on the matter. An early Privy Council resolution recommended that the King accept sovereignty over Sikaiana, “subject however to the free and unconstrained approval of the cession by four fifths of the adult male natives congregated in a general meeting for that express purpose after fourteen days’ notice by a Public Crier.”1 Dr. Lorenz Gonschor suggest that the Hawaiian Kingdom’s response to the proposition constitutes the first act of self-determination extended to native peoples within the Pacific.2
Despite the Privy Council’s unanimous approval,3 the annexation plans ultimately fell away due to its impracticality.
For more information regarding the Hawaiian-Sikaiana annexation plan, refer to Lorenz Gonschor’s A Power in the World: The Hawaiian Kingdom in Oceania. Edited by Kieko Matteson and Anand A. Yang. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2019.
1 “Privy Council Minutes,” Hawaiian Kingdom (17 Sep. 1855).
2 Lorenz Gonschor, A Power in the World : The Hawaiian Kingdom in Oceania, p. 57.
3 “Privy Council Minutes,” Hawaiian Kingdom (18 Feb. 1856).
Image: Pile Sleeping Houses, (modern?) Sikaiana, Stewart Islands, Crocker Expedition to the Western Pacific, 1933; Book 74, p. 41, 361. Bishop Museum Archives, SP 33405
Image sharing on social media is welcome. For all other uses please contact Archives@BishopMuseum.org
Image: “Ka Paeaina o Hawaii nei,” Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, November 26, 1897, p. 2.
The Hawaiian Archipelago.
Beyond the islands of Hawaiʻi, Maui, Oʻahu, Kauaʻi, Lānaʻi, Molokaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Niʻihau, Lehua, and Kaula, which are usually seen as the islands included in what comes under the joint name, “Kō Hawaiʻi Pae ʻĀina,” there are also other islands which have joined that group.
The island of Nihoa (Bird Island), became part of Hawaiʻi nei in the year 1822. This “annexation” was undertaken by Kuhina Kaʻahumanu. Keolaloa (Captain William Sumner) was the caption of the ship sent to accomplish this.
The island of Laysan became a district of Hawaiʻi on the 1st of May 1857, and on the 10th of that same year [sic], Lysiansky Island was annexed to the Nation of Kamehameha by Captain John Paty (Keoni Peti).
On the 15th of April 1862, Palmyra Island was annexed by Captain Zenas Bent, and it was proclaimed a Hawaiian territory, during the reign of Kamehameha IV, as per the Government announcement published in the Polynesian newspaper on June 21, 1862.2
On September 20, 1886, the island of Papapa (Ocean Island) accrued to Hawaiʻi nei by way of the National proclamation of Colonel James Harbottle Boyd who was empowered to carry out that task during the reign of Kalākaua.
The island of Necker was annexed to the Hawaiian Kingdom on the 27th of May 1894, by Captain James Anderson King on behalf of the Hawaiian Nation.
The low island called “French Frigate Shoal,” is the last island annexed to Hawaiʻi, on the 13th of July 1895. Captain James Anderson King carried out this annexation.
It has been said that accrued to Hawaiʻi were Gardner Island, Mara or Moro Reef, Pearl and Hermes Reef, Gambia Bank, and Johnston Island (or perhaps Cornwallis).
Within the archives of the Office of Foreign Affairs can be found treaty made between the Hon. Charles St. Julien, the Commissioner and Political and Commercial Agent of His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, and John Webster, Esq., the Sovereign Chief and Proprietor of the group of islands known as Stewart’s Islands (near the Solomon Islands), and per those treaties, they were annexed by the Hawaiian Kingdom should the King consent. These are the names of those islands: Ihikaiana [Sikaiana], Te Parena, Taore, Matua Awi and Matua Ivoto.
This treaty was made in Sydney (Kikane) on the 10th of February, 1855, but there are no reports speaking of its ratification.
(Kuokoa, 11/26/1897, p. 2)
Image: A Man getting water from well. Sikaiana, Stewart Islands, Crocker Expedition to the Western Pacific, 1933; Book 74, p. 40, 361. Bishop Museum Archives, SP 33399
Image sharing on social media is welcome. For all other uses please contact Archives@BishopMuseum.org
Image: Executive, Foreign Relations & Affairs Reports, 1845-1863 , Gov. Docs Box 15.12, p. 9.
Image sharing on social media is welcome. For all other uses please contact Archives@BishopMuseum.org
Image: Executive, Foreign Relations & Affairs Reports, 1845-1863, Gov. Docs Box 15.12, p. 10.
Image sharing on social media is welcome. For all other uses please contact Archives@BishopMuseum.org
Image: Andrew Cheyne, A Description of Islands in the Western Pacific Ocean, North and South of the Equator: With Sailing Directions, 1852, London, J. D. Potter, p. 182.
Image sharing on social media is welcome. For all other uses please contact Archives@BishopMuseum.org
This post is part of He Aupuni Palapala: Preserving and Digitizing the Hawaiian Language Newspapers, a partnership between Bishop Museum and Awaiaulu with assistance from Kamehameha Schools. Mahalo nui loa to Hawaii Tourism Authority for their support. Learn more about this project here.
