The Original statue -
​ The long journey home

The Statue of King Kamehameha Ekahi has a prominent place in North Kohala’s distant and recent history. The Statue was commissioned by the Hawaiian legislature in 1878, and a heroic 9-foot bronze statue was created in Paris. Destined for the Judiciary building in Honolulu, the statue was shipped from Paris, but was lost near the Falkland Islands after the ship burned and sank. A replacement statue was eventually unveiled in Honolulu. Later, the original statue was salvaged from the ocean and repaired. It was relocated to his birthplace of ‘Āinakea with a dedication ceremony that took place on May 8, 1883. The Statue was then moved a short distance in 1912 to it’s present location at the courthouse in Kapa‘au. Since then, the statue of King Kamehameha I has honored and protected North Kohala from his position above Akoni Pule Highway in
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On Kamehameha Day, June 11th, individuals and organizations pay homage to the King by creating many 20 - foot floral or ti lei, which are draped over the statue.

Statue ceremonies include the Sunrise ceremony and Lei Draping ceremony. Ho‘okupu of leis, hula and chants. Participating in the proceedings are the Royal Order of Kamehameha, Nā wahine ‘o Kamehameha, ‘Ahahui Ka‘ahumanu, Daughter’s of Hawaii and members of the Hawaiian Civic Club.

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Legacy Restored

Corroded from it’s time in the sea, early in the century, community residents began painting the bronze statue to protect it from further deterioration and to make it’s colors lifelike — brown skin, yellow feather cloak and red and yellow sash. In 1996 conservator Glenn Wharton was sent by Public Arts Administrators to assess the statue’s condition. What he found startled him: A larger-than-life brass figure painted over in brown, black, and yellow with “white toenails and fingernails and penetrating black eyes with small white brush strokes for highlights. . . .Wharton, “It looked more like a piece of folk art than a nineteenth-century heroic monument.” In the book, The Painted King, Wharton comes to understand the statue’s meaning for the residents of Kohala. He learns that the Kohala people prefer the “more human” (painted) Kamehameha, regaling him with a parade, chants, and leis every Kamehameha Day. Wharton meets a North Kohala volunteer who decides to paint the statue’s sash after respectfully consulting with a kahuna (Hawaiian spiritual leaders) and the statue itself. A veteran of Public Art Conservation, Wharton had never before encountered a community that had developed such a lengthy, personal relationship with a civic monument. He makes his decision, ignoring warnings about “going native,” from his colleagues and decides to help the people of Kohala in the conservation of their statue. In 2001, the rapidly deteriorating statue gets restored after years-long process that involved Public Arts Administrators, Kohala cultural practitioners and hundreds of local residents. The statue was rededicated in 2001 and is maintained by a trained group of local volunteers. A documentary about this unique community effort, A Legacy Restored, was shown on public television and is available from statue maintenance committee.