Finding the past at the palace

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

The dusk deepened and the lights came on, winking down from the surrounding high-rises and from the vintage electric lampposts of 'Iolani Palace, where students stepped into the past while the present swirled around them.

Nalani Olds leads a Classroom Without Walls group from Hawai'i Pacific University on an unusual evening tour of 'Iolani Palace, giving colorful details of life there as it used to be. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Some of the information would not be heard on the tourist circuit. Olds pointed to the upper right window, where the queen was imprisoned after the monarchy was overthrown.

"See how that window is covered with paper?" she asked. "That was so she couldn't be seen by snipers who might try to assassinate her."

Her tour group for the day was about 30 college students, most of them from Hawai'i Pacific University, which conducts such field trips as part of its Classroom Without Walls program. And because HPU enrolls a large number of international students, the series is part of an effort to acquaint them with Hawaiian history and culture, said cultural anthropology teacher Lynette Cruz.

"We ask them to participate in one of these, but we find if they do one, they will do two," Cruz said. "Students tend to not get a chance to get out in the community. I think it changes them. They end up thinking, 'At least I know something about this place. Real people live here.' "

The evening visit to the 'Iolani grounds (the palace generally offers only daytime interior tours) was the last of the semester, Cruz said, but more trips are planned for the spring. And it was a bit atypical: Earlier excursions to Kahana Valley, Ulupo Heiau and Mokauea Island involved more hands-on experiences, where students had the opportunity to work in taro fields, clear brush from historic sites or clean up the beach at Mokauea.

Before Olds began her exposition on Hawaiian historical events predating the palace era, the students revealed themselves as a mix of about half Hawai'i residents and half from the Mainland or foreign countries. But even some of the longtime local residents admitted that much of the palace story was news to them.

Tiny details, such as the star-shaped apertures in the palace steps being used as hidden gun turrets, had eluded malihini and kama'aina alike. Few realized that the palace had electricity even before the White House, thanks to King Kalakaua's world tour.

Olds also told of how the side gate, nearest the state library, was barred to all but relatives of the royal family, how the front gate was for dignitaries. Thus she made clear the queen's humiliation upon being brought up the rear steps frequented by the servants for her imprisonment within.

And by what surreptitious means did the queen, locked up in that corner room except for evening strolls along the outer lanai, get her news?

"There was a couple who brought her fresh flowers," Olds said. "And how were the flowers wrapped? In newspaper, of course."

There are other downtown tours, Cruz said, but most of them focus less on Hawaiian history and more on architecture.

Cruz invited anyone interested to inquire about next term's Classroom Without Walls program, which will accommodate the public on a space-available basis, usually on the first weekend of each month. The hope, she said, is that people on their own will nurture the connection with the Islands established through these brief introductions.

"We're not a gateway to the community," she said, "we just want to open the door. Thereafter if they want to interact with the community on their own, they can."

Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.