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| Education is the Equalizer! |
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Your local libraries are filled with exciting
adventures. |
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Free computer classes are offered at most libraries. |
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Call your library for “Story Time” schedules. |
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- Click images for more information - |
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About the Cover |
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“Poppies” (1890).
Painted in Great Britain
by Princess Ka`iulani,
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heir to the Hawaiian
throne, at age fifteen. |
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| Author’s Note |
| In 1889, Princess
Ka`iulani was sent to
school in England. While
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| she was abroad, the
descendants of American
missionaries in the |
| Hawaiian Islands
actively plotted to
overthrow the monarchy.
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| Having already
forcibly reduced the
monarchy’s power, they
were |
| maneuvering to take
over the government
completely. |
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| The princess’s
painting suggests her
own inner landscape. She
often |
| admitted feeling
desperately homesick for
her beloved islands; and
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| the bay
and coastal mountains, though
painted in Great Britain, take
on a strong resemblance to the |
| shape of
Diamond Head and the curve of
Waikiki. |
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| These icons of Ka`iulani’s
island home fade into the barren
background, covered over by Western |
| plants: the red poppy, known
for its drowsy, narcotic effect, which
can ultimately cause death; and |
| the yellow dandelion, a
noxious weed that propagates itself
through the soil and the air to choke
out |
| other flowers. |
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| Red and yellow are the colors
of the royal ali`i, the rulers of
Hawaii. Did the princess’s art depict
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| how Western influence was
usurping that power, and killing the
land and its people? |
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| Art is mysterious, and
there’s no way to know if these images
were conscious or unconscious. |
| Princess Ka`iulani left no
record of why she painted the picture
this way. It is certain, however, that |
| she knew of the Western
agitators’ intrigues, and her royal
family’s heroic struggle to save the
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Hawaiian
kingdom. |
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