Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives is excited to announce the return of our Mele Programs, the first to be held since 2019. Join us on a musical journey in the footsteps of Rev. William Ellis’ circumnavigation of Hawaiʻi Island in 1823 featuring the musicians and dancers of Hālau Mele, Kumu Sam ʻOhu Gon III and Kumu Mahealani Wong, and Hālau Hula Kamamolikolehua, Kumu Pohai Souza, as well as a LIVE History Theatre portrayal of Rev. William Ellis.
The program will be held on the beautiful Kahua Hoʻokipa Stage at the Hawaiian Mission Houses, 553 S. King St., Honolulu, HI 96813, on the Waikīkī side of Kawaiahaʻo Church. Seating will open at 5pm and the program will start at 6pm. Tickets are $35 per person. Tickets and more information available at https://missionhouses.org/upcoming-events/.
In 1823, Rev. William Ellis of the London Missionary Society and several American Protestant missionaries toured Hawaiʻi Island scouting possible locations for future mission stations. Rev. Ellis wrote a detailed account of this circumnavigation published as A Journal of a Tour around Hawaii, the Largest of the Sandwich Islands in 1825. He describes in minute detail his travel path, the people he encountered, the landscape he saw, and the stories and traditions of the different parts of the island he travelled through. The journey by foot and waʻa (canoe) took place June through August, 1823.
Rev. William Ellis is well-known for his anthropological observations from his time as a missionary in Tahiti and Hawaiʻi in the early 1800s, published in Polynesian Researches. Rev. Ellis and the American Protestant Missionaries became the first Westerners to visit Kilauea Crater. The Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail encompasses many of the places that Rev. Ellis visited in 1823 (https://www.nps.gov/alka/index.htm).
Through the mele, oli, and hula presented by the two hālau, as well as a special guest appearance by Rev. Ellis from the Hawaiian Mission Houses’ History Theatre Program, we will recreate parts of Rev. Ellis’ journey as well as share the stories and beauty of Hawaiʻi Island.