page_title: Maria Beckley Kahea
section_title: Court life and service as kahu
hierarchical_section_title: Maria Beckley Kahea / Court life and service as kahu
caption_attribution_description: English: High Chiefess Maria Beckley Kahea (December 23, 1847 – July 11, 1909), was a granddaughter of Captain George Charles Beckley and High Chiefess Ahia. She was appointed kahu of the Royal Mausoleum at Mauna ʻAla in 1893. Photograph from obituary.
context_page_description: Maria Angela Kahaʻawelani Beckley Kahea was a high chiefess during the Hawaiian Kingdom. She was a granddaughter of Captain George Charles Beckley and High Chiefess Ahia and a descendant of High Chief Hoʻolulu, who helped conceal the bones of Kamehameha I. During her youth, she served as lady-in-waiting in the courts of Queen Emma and Queen Kapiʻolani. She was appointed kahu of the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii at Mauna ʻAla in 1893 and served in this position until her death.
context_section_description: During the reign of King Kamehameha V (r. 1863–1872), she served as lady-in-waiting to Queen Dowager Emma, the widow of King Kamehameha IV. After King Kalākaua was elected as monarch in 1874, he sent for Kahea to join his court. On learning of this, Queen Emma asked Kahea to accept the request and to become be lady-in-waiting to Kalākaua's wife Queen Kapiʻolani.PCAFuneral Kalākaua reigned from 1874 to 1891 and was succeeded by his sister Queen Liliʻuokalani who reigned from 1891 to 1893. Around 1891, Kahea and Hawaiian musician Lizzie Alohikea co-composed the song Ahi Wela which consist of "poetry of passion, telling of sexual combustion that may result from the act of love".
  On March 24, 1893, two months after the overthrow of the kingdom and the deposition of Queen Liliʻuokalani, Minister of Interior James A. King appointed Kahea and her husband as kahu (caretaker or keeper) of the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii at Mauna ʻAla. They succeeded Princess Poʻomaikelani, a member of the deposed royal family and the sister of Queen Kapiʻolani in this post. On March 25, Liliʻuokalani wrote in her diary:
  Wiliokai called to say he was notified by J. C. King of the P. G. that he must leave the mausoleum and to deliver up the keys to Maria Beckley Kahea. Although I was astonished it is better for her to be there then to have another person.
  Kahea was the first member of the Hoʻolulu family line to serve as kahu of the Royal Mausoleum. The kuleana (responsibility) of this position has continued in her family and the descendants of her cousin Miriam Auhea Kekāuluohi Crowningburg up to the present-day. On November 30, 1894, the newspaper Hawaii Holomua Progress published a letter Kahea wrote to the editor of the newspaper. In the letter, she explained her connections to the interred monarchs and responded to a November 17 report by the paper that former retainers of King Kalākaua were refused access to the mausoleum on the occasion of the king's birthday on November 16.
  In the days of the monarchy the indiscriminate entrance to the Mausoleum of parties not known to be connected by either relationship or by the old acknowledged ties of chiefs and retainers was not permitted. In fact the native people at large always felt outraged when some favorite of the hour, not entitled by birth or marriage, gained access to what is in their eyes a sacred place, the resting place of their beloved and revered chiefs. Supposing any one not entitled  as such, had been refused access to the inside of the Mausoleum, where would have been the outrage? No one was refused, but I entrusted with the sacred duty of guarding the resting places of the chiefs to whom I am connected by all requisite ties; would most certainly have refused permission to any indiscriminate unauthorized visit of people. I do not recognise as privilege to do so. I do not understand that it is the intention of the present government to make a public show of the bones of our dead and beloved chiefs and to permit idle visit of uninterested parties just to satisfy a vulgar curiosity. Any offerings of flowers for decoration would have been most gratefully received by the undersigned, and should the bearers have been proper ones to enter, what has always been held by us Hawaiians as tabu precincts, she or he would have most certainly been permitted to place her or his flowers in person by the keeper of the Mausoleum.
  — Maria Kahaawelani Kahea
caption: Maria Beckley Kahea, during her later years
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