Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Hawaii/Outreach/News Bureau

Featured story proposals

September

• Liliuokalani (proposed)
  • Waiting for KAVEBEAR to share his ideas. Viriditas (talk) 11:43, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
    • Expansion on her personal life and her marriage to John Owen Dominis and her conflicts with her mother-in-law Mary Dominis. Her love for children and Hanai childrens. Reaction after John's death. Did she ever had any bonds toward her mother and father.
    • Is their any good lasting legacy from her reign other than ending the kingdom.
    • Expansion on her later life, after the overthrown. Life as a private citizen. Hopes of becoming Queen again. Relationship with the Kawananakoas.
    • My goal is to have the Hawaiian royalty equaled to the British Royalty. So I use Queen Victoria's article as example on Liliuokalani's article.

Very interesting, don't stop here; please keep going! Viriditas (talk) 09:07, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Out of any months of the year, the best to honor Queen Liliʻuokalani would be this month, September, the month of her birth. She was born in 1838 at the grass hut compound of her grandfather ʻAikanaka. Named Liliu Loloku Walania Kamakaʻeha (Lydia Smarting Tearful Anguish the Sore Eyes) in honor of the eye ailment of the Premier Kaahumanu II, she was never expected to rule but merely remain a minor nobility, similarily to her parents. She was baptized under the Christian name of Lydia, same name as the late aunt of the priemer. Her parents, Kapaakea and Analea, both from high chiefly family, distant cousins of the Kamehameha III, and advisor of king, gave her in hanaied (adoption) to Konia and Paki. Her foster parents had a daughter named Bernice, her childhood playmate and role model. Unlike her brother, David Kalakaua, whose dislike of the House of Kamehameha could be clearly seen throughout his life, she was surrounded by them, and throughout her early life she was considered a part of the royal court. She attended Royal School, a boarding school ran by missionaries and formerly named Chief's Children School, along with fifteen other royal children, and she and thirteen other were considered to be eligible heirs to the throne. After Royal School closed, she finished her education at a day school. Excelling in Western etiquette, mastering the English language but also preserving her knowledge of her own language, she finished her education at eighteen and was easily the most accomplished young woman in the islands. A few of her suitors included the future monarch, William C. Lunalilo, and John Owen Dominis, from a wealthy Bostonian family. She was engaged to the former for a time before canceling it, probably because of Princess Victoria Kamamalu. In 16 September 1862, she married to John Owen Dominis. For a time she resided in her mother-in-law, Mary's, house named Washington Place. It was not a happy household. Her mother-in-law always looked upon her as a non-Caucasian and as someone who she was not going to accept into her house with open arms, despite the fact that she was royal. According to her private papers, Liliu wanted a family of her own but was never able to bear children. She was frequently lonely, her husband preferring to socialize without her. In her sorrow, she founded solace in music, composing over 165 pieces and one of Hawaii's most famous piece, Aloha ʻOe. In 1874, her brother was elected to succeed to the throne after Lunalilo's death. She was given the title of Princess and style Royal Highness, although she had been called Princess since the 1860s. After her brother, Prince William Leleiohoku, died, she was proclaimed Crown Princess of Hawaii and the heir presumptive to the throne of Hawaii. In 1887, she attended Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee along with her sister-in-law, Kapiʻolani. For the first time the Hawaiian royalties were treated as equal to their European counterparts, attending dinner in the arms of the future Emperor Wilhelm of Germany, and also granted audience by Queen Victoria. Celebrations were cut short by troubles in Hawaii, as the foreign population of Hawaii forced the king to sign a new constitution, known as the Bayonet Constitution. This constitution greatly restricted the monarch’s power and derived the vote from the non-landholding Hawaiian commoners. Further troubles were the debts Kalakaua had brought on to Hawaii. Her brother was a shadow of his former self when he left Hawaii for the last time to seek medical aid in San Francisco. Kalakaua died and she came to the throne as Liliʻuokalani. She was the first Queen Regnant of Hawaii, and she would never guess that she would be its last. Few people had been placed in her situation. She inherited nation greatly in debt and racially divided. The native believed she would follow in her brother’s steps that Hawaiians were first. The foreigner expected that she remain a constitutional monarch, or in other words a puppet. She attempted economic reforms cut her salary in half in face of the bankrupted treasury. Even this was enough, and when the U.S. removed foreign tariffs in the sugar trade because of the McKinley Tariff, the foreign population greatly wanted Annexation to the United States. Another difficult situation was the plea of a new constitution by the native population. In January 17, 1893, she was overthrow by the Committee of Safety. She temporarily relinquished her throne to "the superior forces of the United States". She probably hoped that this event would have been like the Paulet Affair during Kamehameha III’s reign, and like Great Britain had done, the United States would reinstate her to the throne. This did not happen. She encouraged her people not to take up arms because did not want a single drop of blood spilled in her cause. During the 2nd Wilcox Rebellion, weapons were found in her flower beds at Washington Place. She was tried and imprisoned. She formerly abdicated under the threat that six of her subjects will be executed. She was released in 1895 but forced to remain in Hawaii. The Republic of Hawaii under the President Sanford Dole had succeeded the Provisional Government, but still harbored hopes for annexation to the U.S. She traveled to Washington D.C. to speak for her people and country, against annexation. The petition which she presented did nothing to help her people’s cause. In 1898, when the Spanish American War broke out, President McKinley recognized the strategic value of Hawaii and supported a congressional resolution for annexation. On the day of annexation, she and her closest friends and family stay shuttered up at Washington Place. She would live out the rest of her life as a private citizen of the U.S. Territory of Hawaii. She died in 1917 and with her went one of the greatest figures in Kingdom of Hawaii. Her greatest legacy was the Liliʻuokalani Children's' Trust build upon her love of children and hopes that her people will survive on without the rule of the alii.

I think this is quite wordy. Needed to be shortened. Not sure if I remain neutral, sorry if I didn’t. KAVEBEAR (talk) 04:55, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Fantastic job! "Wordy" is always better for a first draft, because that gives us the ability to prune it and tighten the prose. It it wasn't wordy, that would be more difficult. I'll have some more comments later, but I think this is a great start for the first paragraph. In the second paragraph, I want to address your four bullet points above, namely what the project can do to improve the article. Great job! Viriditas (talk) 09:12, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

October

• Aloha shirt (proposed)

November

• Hokulea (proposed)

December

• Plate lunch (proposed)

January

• Lahaina (proposed)

News items

November

• Assessment
  • Reassessment of Start-Class Hawaii articles
  • Reassessment of Stub-Class Hawaii articles
• Cleanup
  • Articles with trivia sections: in progress

Member interview

The Obento Musubi

July-August

Obento Musubi has recently announced his semi-retirement from Wikipedia. The project wishes to thank Obento for the time and energy spent improving WikiProject Hawaii.

Part I

1. In the short time you have been a member of WP:HAWAII, you have attempted a project redesign and you have created this newsletter. Along those lines, what critical recommendations can you offer for improving the project pages and newsletter content? In other words, if you had more time, what changes would you propose?

   In redesigning the front page, I tried to make it more presentable and aesthetically pleasing to visitors than what was presented before. Aesthetically speaking (get ready, page designers), I feel that our portal needs some tweaking in its designs. I personally prefer designs with padding. (more to come)

September

Part II

1. If you had the time, what Hawaii-related topic would you choose to improve and bring to featured article status and why?

   I started cleanup on List of English words of Hawaiian origin a little while ago, and I would really like it to become a featured list someday. As for an actual article, I would like plate lunch to become a featured article. I grew up on plate lunches, and I think our community at WikiProject Hawaii has the potential to expand this article greatly. Generally speaking, I would love to see all food articles related to Hawaii to be expanded. I believe it would be a great collaboration between the Food and Drink WikiProject and WikiProject Hawaii.

November

Part III

1. Can you comment on this discussion about the List of English words of Hawaiian origin? I identified about 108 words, but my understanding is that many of these can be found in Webster's. It may even be possible to display a list of all Hawaiian-words in English using tools available from Webster's, such as their offline CD. It might be easier to split this article into two, an English words of Hawaiian origin that discusses the topic, and a straight list, like we currently have. What do you think? As for plate lunch, that's an excellent candidate for featured article work. Would you have time to comment on Talk:Plate lunch and make a few suggestions for improvement? One reason this is so interesting, is that the Hawaiian plate lunch is a microcosm of the ethnic diversity of Hawaii, and any discussion of the plate lunch must investigate the intertwining history of foreign immigration, life on the plantation, and even its contributions to Hawaiian Pidgin. Have you had a chance to read Rachel Laudan's The Food of Paradise?

   Regarding the List of English words of Hawaiian origin, I believe the agreement they reached was a reasonable one. When editing the list, I, too, noticed many words that many mainlanders would not be familiar with. I believe that the words now on the list are fine, because they're educational and informative to mainlanders but they have also become assimilated into the English language (at least, they have in the isles). It's a great idea to split the list into two. My only fear is that the list would be extremely short. However, if it's feasible, then I say, let's go for it! Regarding plate lunch, I think it's a good start. I'm a sucker for plate lunches, and I would eat one everyday if I had the choice. The article is very short right now, and it would be great if we could expand the article at least tenfold. If it's possible, I'd also like to see some infoboxes go on the page. You are correct regarding ethnic diversity. Plate lunches symbolize the diversity in the islands. There are items that come from all over the world. Rice is definitely an Asian staple, and you can have chicken katsu from Japan, chow mein noodles from China, or meat jun from Korea. I think it would be really interesting to look at how spelling differences occurred. For example, the Korean dish is very commonly referred to in the islands as "meat jun", yet according to the article, its proper spelling is "jeon". Also, taegu, a Korean side dish common in the islands, seems to me to be nonexistent in Korea. The article on Wikipedia redirects to Daegu, a Korean city. Sadly, no, I haven't read The Food of Paradise. I do know it would probably make my mouth water more than it already is!

Layout discussion

Masthead

• Image:WikiProject_Hawaii_Monthly_Logo.png
  • I think this logo would look even better if the letters "ikiProject Newsletter" were black, instead of white. Would Obento be willing to update a demo? —Viriditas | Talk 09:43, 7 April 2008 (UTC)
    • I would... if I still had the font. I'll see what I can do, but I'm sorta crunched for time academically right now. –The Obento Musubi (Contributions) 07:25, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
      • No worries. When do you think you might have some free time to discuss the logo and the feature story for the next issue? —Viriditas | Talk 10:08, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
        • If you're unsure what the font is called, I believe it's called Cloister Black (identified). Kal ^(talk) 18:34, 13 June 2008 (UTC)
          • Thank you very much. – Obento Musubi (C • G • S) 00:15, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Dispute resolution update

based on automated bot report and MPerel's AWB flagging