The city was once the royal residence of King Kamehameha III, who unified Hawaii under a single kingdom. Kings and queens are buried in the graveyard of the 200-year-old stone Wainee Church.
By MARK THIESSEN and AUDREY McAVOY
“It was really the political center for Hawaii,” said Davianna McGregor, a retired professor of ethnic studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “All the places that are tourist areas, that are Hawaiian history, are gone, and that can’t be replaced,” he said. “You can’t refurbish a building that’s just ashes now. It can’t be rebuilt — it’s gone forever.”
For Native Hawaiians, the city is a connection to their ancestors. Lahainaluna High School was where royalty and chiefs were educated, and also where Kamehameha and his Council of Chiefs drafted the first Declaration of Rights of the People and the Constitution for the Hawaiian Kingdom.
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