Kini "Jennie" Kapahu Wilson (March 4, 1872 - July 23, 1962) was a Hawaiian hula dancer, musician, and singer. In 1893-94, she toured the United States, Europe and Russia, performing for heads of state such as Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsar Nicholas II. She married Honolulu Mayor John H. Wilson and was recognized as the "Honorary First Lady" of Hawaii.
Video Kini Kapahu Wilson
Early life
Ana Kini Kapahukulaokam?malu Kuululani McColgan Huhu was born in Honolulu on March 4, 1872, the fourteenth child of Hawai?ian Kalaiolele and Irish tailor John N. McColgan. She became the h?nai daughter of Kapahukulaokam?malu, a stranger who had passed by and assisted her mother in her birth. Because Kapahukulaokam?malu and her husband Ku?ula were childless, Kalaiolele gave her daughter in h?nai to the couple. She was called Kini Kapahu after her h?nai mother. She grew up next door to King Kal?kaua and attended school for just three years. She learned to dance the hula from her mother, a court dancer and chanter. When she was 14, the King invited her to join the court's hula dancer troupe, Hui Lei Mamo. Although Kapahukulaokam?malu opposed the public performance of the dance at the time, Queen Kapi?olani later convinced her to give her permission when Kini was 16. She was one of seven dancers for the King and received training in Hawaiian dance, ballroom dance, singing and ukulele.
Maps Kini Kapahu Wilson
Career
World dance tour
Following the King's death in 1891, Kini learned Hawaiian dance from Kaua?ians Kapaona and Namake?elua. She learned the sacred, traditional forms hula pahu and hula ?la?apapa. In 1893, she toured the United States, performing in San Francisco, in Portland, Oregon, and at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The following year she toured Europe, performing in Paris at the Folies Bergère, in Germany for Kaiser Wilhelm II and in Russia for Tsar Nicholas II. She returned to Chicago in 1895.
Kapahu was the member of touring Hawaiian dance troupes in the following years. She performed at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha in 1898 and the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901. She related that she invented the t? leaf skirt.
Marriage, suffrage and politics
Kapahu married engineer John H. Wilson on May 8, 1909. They moved to Moloka?i and lived in the Pelekunu Valley where Kapahu farmed taro and was postmistress. They returned to Honolulu in 1919 where Wilson was elected Honolulu's mayor. Following the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, Kapahu organized a meeting for the territory's women to "discuss the new sphere of womanhood as created by the equal suffrage amendment." Thereafter she supported her husband's political career; he was reelected mayor and served as the territory's postmaster and administrator of Social Security and Public Welfare.
Death and legacy
The Hawaii State Legislature designated Kapahu as "Honorary First Lady" after the admission to the union in 1959. In December 1960, Kapahu went to ?Iolani Palace to cast one of Hawaii's four electoral votes for that year's presidential election. She died on July 23, 1962 at the Queen's Hospital in Honolulu following a mild stroke, aged 90. She was buried beside her husband at Oahu Cemetery in the Nu?uanu Valley. In March 2017, Hawai?i Magazine listed Kapahu among a list of the most influential women in Hawaiian history.
References
Further reading
- Peterson, Barbara Bennett, ed. Notable Women of Hawaii. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 1984.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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