Kekuiapoiwa II

Kekuiapoiwa II was Hawaiian chiefess, mother of Kamehameha the Great. She was named after her aunt Kekuiapoiwanui or I who was the wife of Kekaulike of Maui.

She was borned the daughter of High Chief Haae, the son of Princess Kalanikauleleiaiwi and High Chief Kauaua-a-Mahi of the Mahi family of Kohala, and brother of Alapainui. Her mother was Princess Kekelakekeokalani-a-Keawe (Kekelaokalani I), daughter the same Kalanikauleleiaiwi and Keaweikekahiali`iokamoku, Alii Aimoku of Hawaii; her mother Kekela was also the aunt of Keoua being Keeaumokunui's only full sister. Her mother had been sought after by many who wished to marry into the Keaw line. Among this crowd of suitors a young chief named Haae was the fovored one to win her heart and hand. She was the niece of Alapainui through her father.

She married the High Chief Keoua Kalanikupuapaikalaninui whom she had been betrothed to since her childhood. Through her maternal and paternal grandmother Kalanikauleleiaiwi, Keoua's own paternal grandmother, she was the double cousin of Keoua. When her uncle was staying at Kohala superintending the collection of his fleet and warriors from the different districts of the island preparatory to the invasion of Maui, in the month of "Ikuwa," corresponding to November of presont reckoning, there was born on a stormy night a child whose career in after life so greatly influenced the destiny of the entire group of islands and the conditions of its people, The child was Kamehameha I., born probably in the November of 1758. [An Account of the Polynesian Race: Its Origins and Migrations, By Abraham Fornander, John F. G. Stokes. Page 135-136]

When Kamehameha's mother, Kekuiapoiwa, was pregnant with him, she had a craving for the eyeball of a chief. Instead she was given the eyeball of a man-eating shark and the priests prophesied that this desire meant that the child would be a rebel and a killer of chiefs. Alapainui, the old ruler of the island of Hawai'i, secretly made plans to have the newborn infant killed. Kekuiapoiwa's time came on a stormy night in the Kohala district, when a strange star with a tail of white fire appeared in the western sky. According to one legend, the baby was passed through a hole in the side of Kekuiapoiwa's thatched hut to a local chief named Naeole, who carried the child to safety at Awini on Hawaii's north coast. By the time the infant in Naeole's care was five, Alapainui had forgotten his fears and accepted him back to the the boy into his household. [ [http://www.monthlyherald.com/when_kamehameha.htm hi ] ]

After Kamehameha, a second son was Prince Keliimaikai and two daughters Princess Peleuli and Princess Piipii. Piipii has been given in some sources as the daughter Kekuiapoiwa's second marriage to her uncle Kamanawa. [History of Keoua Kalanikupuapa-i-kalani-nui, Father of Hawaii Kings, By Elizabeth Kekaaniauokalani Pratt. Page 18]

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