The Story of the Kalihi Pālama Hawaiian Civic Club
A Hawaiian History Month Reflection
Na Leimomi Khan
September, Hawaiian History Month, gives us an opportunity not only to remember the great events and people of Hawaiʻi’s past, but also to recognize the organizations through which generations of Hawaiians have worked to preserve our culture, strengthen our communities, and advocate for the well-being of the lāhui.
Among those organizations is the Kalihi Pālama Hawaiian Civic Club, whose history stretches back more than half a century.
Its story is one of service, advocacy, culture, community—and living by a simple but enduring principle:
Hoʻikaika Like Me Ke Aloha — Strive Together With Love.
Our Beginnings
The roots of the Kalihi Pālama Hawaiian Civic Club reach into the late 1960s. The Club was formally chartered by the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs on November 19, 1969, under the leadership of Aunty Susan K. Pine.
The sponsoring organization was the Kailua Hawaiian Civic Club, under the guidance of the late Hardy Hutchinson, Eleanor Hutchinson, and Uncle Nappy Durant. In 2019, the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs recognized Kalihi Pālama’s 50th anniversary and recalled that it became the 17th club of the Oʻahu Council to be chartered.
The names of the early members themselves tell an important story.
They included Aunty Susan Pine; Eleanor “Aunty Ellie” Williamson, a historian with Bishop Museum; Aunty Marie Olson; Aunty Anna Eagles Wahinehoʻokai; Pearl Kam; Paul Dabis; Joan McCubbin Fabrao; Kupuna Maile Montevon; Kupuna Helen Gandel; and John Waiheʻe, who would later become Governor of Hawaiʻi. The Club’s constitution also remembers Aunty Helena Wilcox Salazar and Uncle Henry Machado among its original members.
They came together because they understood something that remains true today:
Hawaiian communities are strengthened when people accept kuleana for one another.
A Civic Club for the Heart of Honolulu
Kalihi Pālama describes itself today as “A Civic Club for the Heart of Honolulu.”
That description is appropriate.
The Club is rooted in the ʻahupuaʻa of Kalihi and has always understood that service to the Hawaiian people must include attention to the communities in which our people live.
Its constitution declares:
“We are the caretaker of all things relating to Nohona Hawaiʻi.”
It identifies the Club’s purpose as improving the welfare of Native Hawaiians in such areas as health, education, housing, agriculture, aquaculture, economic development, and social welfare, while perpetuating Native Hawaiian traditions, practices, and ways of life.
That is an ambitious mission.
It is also a very Hawaiian one.
It recognizes that the well-being of our people cannot be separated into neat categories. Housing affects health. Education affects economic opportunity. Culture affects identity. ʻĀina affects everything.
To mālama the lāhui requires attention to all of them.
Hoʻikaika Like Me Ke Aloha
The Club’s motto and mele are “Hoʻikaika Like Me Ke Aloha,” written by the late Uncle Henry Machado and Aunty Helena Wilcox Salazar.
Its English meaning is often given as “Strive Together With Love.”
Those words describe not only what members should do, but how they should do it.
Strive—but strive together.
Work—but work with aloha.
Advocate strongly—but do so while remembering our relationship and responsibility to one another.
The Club has identified Hawaiian values to guide that work: aloha, ʻimi naʻauao, mālama, pono, kuleana, hoʻomau, haʻahaʻa, lōkahi, laulima, lokomaikaʻi, and hoʻihi.
These are not simply words to place in a constitution.
They are standards by which our work should be measured.
Advocacy as Part of Our History
From its beginnings, Kalihi Pālama has understood that a Hawaiian civic club must be willing to advocate.
The Club’s stated purposes include protecting Native Hawaiian water, gathering, and land rights; supporting Native Hawaiian health programs; expanding educational opportunities; protecting the Aliʻi Trusts and Hawaiian Home Lands; and supporting legislation affecting Hawaiʻi Maoli at the local, national, and international levels.
Over the years, members have carried that responsibility into resolutions, testimony, community service, conventions, and discussions about some of the most difficult issues facing the Hawaiian people.
The Club has also taken positions on the political future of Native Hawaiians. Following the 2016 Native Hawaiian ʻAha, Kalihi Pālama members voted to support the work of the ʻAha and ratification of the constitution it produced. The Club subsequently devoted a section of its website to Native Hawaiian governance and educational materials concerning Hawaiian self-governance.
Whether the issue is land, housing, education, cultural preservation, self-determination, or the future of Hawaiian institutions, the underlying kuleana remains the same:
to make certain the Hawaiian voice is heard.
Mālama Kūpuna, Mālama Moʻomeheu
Another important part of the Club’s history has been its commitment to culture and kūpuna.
Its founding generation included people who brought knowledge of history, music, cultural practices, and community leadership. The Club’s purposes specifically call for members to support, care for, and respect with reverence the wisdom of our kūpuna.
That responsibility also extends to places connected with our aliʻi and our history.
Perhaps one of the finest recent examples is the Club’s Maunaʻala Kāhili Project.
Concern arose over the condition of historic Kalākaua-era kāhili that had long stood at the entrance to the chapel at Maunaʻala, the Royal Mausoleum. Kalihi Pālama stepped forward.
After years of planning, cultural consultation, volunteer work, and collaboration, two new kāhili were completed and installed while the historic kāhili were respectfully placed into protected storage.
The new kāhili were named Kūliaikanuʻu, honoring Queen Kapiʻolani, and KekahuhiwahiwaoHauola, honoring Princess Abigail Wahiʻikaʻahuʻula Kawānanakoa. They were formally dedicated at Maunaʻala at the end of 2025.
That project represents Hawaiian civic engagement in its fullest sense.
It was not enough to say that our aliʻi and their history are important.
Members accepted responsibility for doing something to perpetuate them.
Generations of Leadership and Service
An organization does not survive for more than half a century because of one person.
It survives because one generation is willing to teach another.
People agree to become officers. Members attend meetings. Someone writes the resolution. Someone prepares food. Someone sings the mele. Someone takes minutes. Someone teaches the protocol. Someone visits the kūpuna. Someone testifies at the Legislature. Someone brings a new member to a meeting.
And slowly, year after year, an institution develops a history.
Kalihi Pālama’s history includes distinguished leaders, but it also includes countless acts of service by members whose names may never appear in a history book.
Those members are part of our moʻokūʻauhau too.
A Living Legacy
Hawaiian History Month can sometimes cause us to think of history as something that happened long ago.
But Hawaiian history did not end with the Hawaiian Kingdom.
It did not end with Prince Kūhiō and the establishment of the Hawaiian Civic Club movement.
Every generation of Hawaiians adds another chapter.
When a civic club protects an important Hawaiian place, that becomes part of our history.
When members advocate for Hawaiian families, that becomes part of our history.
When we teach a child a mele, honor a kūpuna, care for Maunaʻala, defend Hawaiian rights, provide a scholarship, pass a resolution, or stand together on an issue important to the lāhui, we are making Hawaiian history.
That is the legacy inherited by the members of the Kalihi Pālama Hawaiian Civic Club.
And it is the kuleana we will someday pass to those who follow us.
More than fifty years after its chartering, the words chosen by our founders remain remarkably appropriate:
Hoʻikaika Like Me Ke Aloha.
Strive Together With Love.
May we continue to do exactly that.
