Kuhio Day parade makes Waikiki debut

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

Organizers of the first-ever Waikiki parade honoring Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana'ole on March 23 are expecting about 2,000 participants.

"We had Kuhio Day parades for about five years in the 1970s but held them in areas of homesteads," said Hawaiian Civic Club first vice president Toni Lee, the event's coordinator. "It was grassroots."

Lee recalled previous Kuhio Day parades in Nanakuli, Hawai'i Kai, Kailua and Wahiawa.

"We haven't had one since the '70s," she added. "But we hope to make this an annual event."

The decision to hold a parade was made in January when sculptor Sean Kekamakupa'a Lee Loy Browne's 7-foot bronze statue of the prince was dedicated at Kuhio Beach, Lee said. "With the statue, we thought now was a good time to resurrect the parade."

The two-mile parade will start at 9:30 a.m. at Kalakaua Avenue and Saratoga Road and end at Kapi'olani Park.

The Hawaiian Civic Club's O'ahu Council will be hosting its annual ho'ike'ike, which is a day of entertainment, food, arts and crafts sales, and demonstrations at the park.

The parade is co-sponsored by the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, the state's Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, the State Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations and the city.

"Ke Ali'i Maka'ainana: The Citizen Prince" is parade's commemorative theme.

"I think it's timely that we're reinstating the parade," Hawaiian Civic Club member Tomi Chong said. "Prince Kuhio was concerned for the future of his people, and there are many issues today affecting Hawaiians — health, education, sovereignty.

"Anytime the Civic Club participates in a public event like (the parade), we do it to educate the community about our host culture."

Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.