Ka Lama Hawaiʻi

In 1834, only three years after the creation of Lahainaluna, its principal, Lorrin Andrews, started a student-run newspaper called Ka Lama Hawaiʻi, or “The Hawaiian Luminary.” The paper’s first issue explained the importance of knowledge.

“In enlightened lands,” wrote its editorial staff, “it is believed that the spreading of knowledge is a good thing. When wise people ponder and come upon good new thoughts not known before […] they then desire to disseminate it abroad, and not hide it, so that all men may know” (61).

 Andrews described Ka Lama’s purpose in three goals. The first was to “give the scholars of the High School the idea of a newspaper [and] to show them how information of various kinds was circulated through the medium of a periodical.” The second goal was, generally, “to communicate to them [students] ideas on many objects.” Thirdly, it was designed as a “channel through which the scholars might communicate their own opinions freely on any subject they chose" (Qtd in Silva 109).

Almost two centuries later, Lahainaluna’s current principal, Richard Carosso, sees Ka Lama as a space where students are “discussing among yourselves,” or where student voice is amplified.

“It’s one of our only resources for students to voice their opinions and to get the input from, you know, their classmates about what's going on at school,” said Carosso, adding that the paper also brings student voices to the school’s administration so the school’s leadership “can tell what matters to you guys.”

Historians remark that the original Ka Lama was mostly a way to send messages from missionary leaders to students; in 2025, it does the opposite. Both then and now, though, Ka Lama Hawai’i has encouraged discussion and literacy on campus while letting students engage with unfamiliar topics. 

Our History

When the missionaries first arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1820 during King Kauikeaouli’s reign, they intended to use literacy or a knowledge of reading and writing to introduce Christian ideals. When they did that, though, they turned literacy all around the islands into a form of power.

Ka Lama Hawaiʻi began under the control of missionaries at Lahainaluna Seminary with questionable intentions. Nevertheless, it created an important tool for promoting literacy: Hawaiʻi’s first newspaper. It was run by students of the seminary out of the printing house in the admin parking lot, Hale Pa’i, right here on our campus. 

On the 14th of February, 1834 Ka Lama published its first issue. It was only four pages written in Hawaiian, and, like every issue after, it contained an illustration by Alonzo and Mary Anne Chapin. The “Elefani,” or elephant, was the picture featured in issue one. Below it, Andrews and his students  provided facts about elephants, their diet, habitat, and lifespan.

The descriptions depict the characteristics of an elephant in an interesting matter, but they could only compare it to things people back then were familiar with. The elephant's nose is described as “being as long as a tree branch” (15) and its height is described as “if a man should stand upon the head of another, then their height would be that of the Elephant’s” (13).

Presenting this content, historian Helen Geracimos Chapin writes that all the paper’s issues  “delivered new and exciting information” to the students of Lahainaluna who had never known animals like that. The pictures, carved by Chapin, a physician at the seminary, brought “an air of immediacy about the world thousands of miles away” (16).

As Chapin describes, Ka Lama, and all early Hawaiian papers, helped to colonize Hawaiian people with non-Hawaiian values by presenting such new and attractive information and images. Sometimes the captions and notes to Ka Lama’s pictures “spoke to the "superiority" of American culture, the Christian religion, and the Protestant work ethic.”  “By such ʻtruth in an attractive formʻ,” writes Chapin, “were Hawaiian readers indoctrinated into the new culture” (16).

Students printed the original Ka Lama and contributed to it. For instance, among them was the famous Lahainaluna graduate and royal advisor, Davida Malo, who published a song titled “He Kanikau No Kaahumanu,” in Ka Lamaʻs August issue (Silva 110). It was written in honor of the ali‘i wahine Ka‘ahumanu.

While students were allowed to contribute to Ka Lama, missionaries controlled the paper and used it to spread their values.  Most of the content discussed religious topics. An article not written by a student in the paper’s first issue was titled “The Reason For Ignorance.” It connected knowledge to religion and argued that “Sin is the reason for ignorance.” The authors of the article were “not identified” but they concluded that “returning to God with a new heart is what is needed” (Antonio 66).

Articles like these were written by the missionaries, says Chapin, “to bring enlightenment to those they considered benighted,” or ignorant and unenlightened. Despite this, according to people living at the time, “upon receiving their copies, students would immediately sit down to read them through” (Chapin 16).

In a recent documentary on literacy in Hawaiʻi, University of Hawaiʻi Professor, Puakea Nogelmeier describes the coming of the missionaries and their impact on Hawaiian society. He describes how literacy was encouraged because "High-level government positions often went to English-speaking foreigners because this interaction was critical for national continuity.”

English literacy was recognized as important not just because of the opportunities that arose from being fluent but because of the opportunities that were being taken away by not being literate in the English language. As Nogelmeier describes “When Hawaiians questioned why there were so many foreigners in government, the King wrote back, saying they needed that interface until they could improve the pool of Hawaiians they could draw from” (Lihlihi). 

This is exactly why Kamehameha III “announced a mobilization of literacy," Nogelmeier adds. "He was already literate, so he wasn't just aspiring; he was sharing. Everyone took pride in learning to read and write, and it became a national project.” English was a form of power that Kamehameha wanted everyone in the islands to have (Lihilhi). 

Ka Lama only lasted one year, but the papers that followed still give historians insight on public perspectives during Hawaiʻi's history.

While missionaries did abuse their influence and power, according to Noenoe Silva, the newspapers served a further purpose for Hawaiʻi’s people. “While the common denominator of the early newspapers discussed here is the desire that their editors had to convert Hawaiians to a radically different system of beliefs and practices,” she states, “the opening up of spaces for written expression, coupled with the Hawaiian embrace of reading and writing, made the newspapers a vital arena in which crucial questions about culture, knowledge, and politics could begin to be publicly debated” (3).

Ka Lama Hawaiʻi built the foundation for all other newspapers in Hawaiʻi. One of them, Ke Kumu, was published out of mission headquarters in Honolulu right after Ka Lamaʻs first run. It lasted from 1834 until 1839 and was edited by missionary Reuben Tinker.

The name of the paper, Ke Kumu, or “The Teacher,” signaled its focus on educating through missionary voices rather than having the focus be on student thoughts. The content of Ke Kumu “was mainly evangelizing by missionaries, with some letters from students and community members” (Silva 18). In this way, Ke Kumu was not so different from its predecessor, Ka Lama.

According to Silva, Ke Kumu Hawai’i was used to represent “the broad aim of the Mission to create a nation that was not only Christian in name and spirit but also intelligent and industrious” (112). Most of its articles were written by Tinker’s fellow missionaries, writes Silva, but “it did not take long […] before both ali‘i and maka‘äinana began to use the publication space for their own purposes” (112). 

During its run, Ke Kumu featured approximately 146 writers, including Davida Malo (112). In his contribution, he wrote about his relationship with religion, combining Christian and Hawaiian terms. “Jesus, have mercy, Or I, your servant, will die. [I am but] the dust on your shoe. The grass upon your path. If you leave us forever, That will be our death forever, Death in the pö, Under continual darkness” (10). 

Ka Nonanona soon followed in 1841. It was run by missionary Richard Armstrong who had been a part of the printing staff of Ke Kumu. Its first issue declared that it would focus on “news; support for school children, teachers, school directors, and parents; a bit of assistance for the pono of the ali‘i, in publishing new laws and new positions in the government, as well as… point out the things that will be pono and the things that will harm the government.”

The paper had a larger audience and covered larger topics than Ke Kumu. As Silva states, “Its primary intent was to be a newspaper that carried news from the capital, Honolulu, to all the other islands.” She adds, however, that it was “still in the hands of missionaries and still evangelical in some ways” even though it had “greatly expanded its scope in content as well as in intended readership.” Ka Nonanona, for Silva, marked the shift of newspapers from tools of missionaries  to sites “for public debate and discourse” (118).

Ka Elele Hawaiʻi started the same year. It was less focused on religion and more on government. It helped inform the public on Hawaii’s rapidly changing society and “served as a site of public debate over the role of foreigners in the government and the sale of lands to foreigners” (Silva 21). Ka Eleleʻs focus allowed citizens to express their opinions on the changing laws surrounding owning land and kept them informed.

Ka Elele was a new kind of newspaper. Its format was “opening up of spaces for written expression,” argues Silva. “Coupled with the Hawaiian embrace of reading and writing, [Ka Elele] made the newspapers a vital arena in which crucial questions about culture, knowledge, and politics could begin to be publicly debated” (3). This is the purpose Ka Elele Hawaiʻi had up until 1855, when the paper stopped publishing.

Hawaiʻi’s first four newspapers all served their individual purposes and proved important to how society interacted with each other. Early newspapers led to a burst in literacy in Hawaiʻi.  Katherine H. Au and Julie Kaomea report that “by the late 1800s, the literacy rate in Hawai‘i compared favorably to that of any nation in the world, an accomplishment much to the credit of the Native Hawaiian teachers in the common schools” (6).

They Learned by Their Mistakes

For over a century since Ka Lama, Lahainaluna seems to have had no school newspaper. Then, in 1928, Ka Nani ‘O Hawaiʻi (“The beauty of Hawaiʻi”) appeared under the guidance of Miss Maurine Watson and Miss Margaret Chapman. Miss Watson also ran a journalism club in 1950 that seems to have had no direct connection with Ka Nani.

The early issues of Ka Nani are lost. Yet, the issues we have show us small pieces of life on campus in the 20s. An issue published in July of 1928 contains an article where an anonymous alumnus reflects on her days at Lahainaluna. “It was customary to have people carry away bags full of mangoes on every commencement day,” she says, unaware that a century later the only thing people would do with the mangos is step over them. 

In the June issue of 1929, students of the glee club found it important to talk about the success of their musical performance, Pickles. It was, they claimed, “a great dramatic and financial success.”

The paper’s establishment was purposeful and was announced by Principal Alton Rogers who wrote in a December 1928 issue about “School Publications” and their importance above all other school publications. “School publications, and especially the newspaper, are among the most worthwhile school activities,” he wrote. “Because of their function of carrying news, encouraging enterprises, and representing the entire school and its activities, they are of inestimable value in unifying the school.” 

Rogers was sad to say, however, that problems often blocked the creation of a high school newspaper. Instead of a regular newspaper, “[f]rom lack of skill,” or literacy, students “are prone to make the annual (yearbook) like all others.” By this time, Ka Lama, had become the name of Lahainaluna’s yearbook. The solution, Rogers thought, required students and advisors to be consistent and constant with their work, to “impress all with their uniformity rather than individuality.”

Ka Nani was short-lived. It started and ended between 1926-1929. In 1929 it was taken over by Mrs. Margaret Tompkins who also wrote that year about newspapers, and described the passion needed for good journalism. “Journalism in the Islands is a bit of a crusade,” she says. “Those who rally to its banners must of necessity have stout hearts, imagination, patience and a goal.”

For Thomkins, the school newspaper was mostly useful for the language training it gave students: “Any medium which will help us to use Better English consistently has much in it’s favor.” She complained about the challenges faced by the faculty advisor. At the end of the day, “before an issue comes out, the poor instructor with the large glasses and the red pencil rewrites paragraphs." This was one of the last things Ka Nani would publish.

Ka Nani finished a year later, starting another 30 years before another school paper was published at Lahainaluna. Yet, in its last year, the paper’s staff coined a motto, “Hitch your wagon to a star.”

The first issue of Lahainaluna’s third newspaper, Ka Leo Luna (Ka Leo means “The Voice”) ran in 1952 under the direction of English and “publications” teacher Alma Kaiama. Like other the other papers, Ka Leo announced its simple mission: “To inform the students and teachers of the activities of our school.” 

An issue printed in its first year reported on the activities of the “Future Homemakers, Leaders Today and Tomorrow,” Hawaiʻi chapter. They were set to hold their “annual territorial convention at Camp Erdman, Oahu, from April 5-8.” Staff included a list of delegates who would be representing our school.

On the same page “Morikawa, Kozaki To Reign Over Junior Prom”  titled a plan for the “Orchids in the Moonlight” prom. “Strands of vanda orchids streaming down on kahilis,” are imagined by the student writer alongside “colored balloons giving the room a gay, festive air; soft lights and a centerpiece of a vanda-filled pond.” All this, the writer said, would “transform the gym into a moonlit paradise.”

Two years after starting Ka Leo, Kaiama left the school to educate others on Maui and eventually got hired at Maui’s community college. In 1980, she became the provost there. Ka Leo ran for 64 years, under the direction of fifteen advisors until 2017 (see figure below). 

Kaiama influenced advisors after her to keep student journalism going. She was born in Hana in 1930 and picked up a wide range of talents during her life. She taught at nearly every grade level, from elementary school to college (Rupenthal). 

After leaving Lahainaluna, she worked from her position at the college to get the school funding and joined a push for its transition from a technical school to a “community school” in 1967.

Probably because of Kaiamaʻs early influence, Ka Leo Luna gradually became associated with a unique motto that appeared regularly in the English Department’s section of Ka Lama, again, the school’s yearbook: “They learned by their mistakes and tried very hard to make the next issue a better one.”

The Voices

According to the school’s registrar and the paper’s second-to-last advisor, Shanda Sasai, Ka Leo Luna was “all about wanting to know what people thought and then sharing that out and getting that out to people." To accomplish this, Ka Leo Luna covered school news, features, and sports. 

The feature that stood out to her the most in all her years of being an advisor for Ka Leo was titled “You know you’re from Lahaina if…” that featured student commentary on living here. She recalls how she loved the concept of it as it allowed for positive discussions on student life. This was a reference to Jeff Foxworthy’s famous saying “You might be a redneck if...”

Sasai went on to describe the process Ka Leo students went through. “Every student wrote,” said Sasai. “They had to get interviews, they had to get pictures. We ran through drafts like crazy. --the highest drafts was like… twenty-eight.”

Sasai was Vice Principal Debralyn Arellano’s advisor when Arellano worked on the paper. Arellano managed the ads that went through Ka Leo in order to pay for printing. In her role, she had to “cold call” businesses downtown in order to sell ads. ”The paper did not have a budget,” she said. 

Ka Leo was exclusively a paper newspaper and Arellano noted how they had to print out issues on the mainland since it was more cost efficient. “We would stay up till like 10 at night in there. Just we knew it was deadline day, so we'd go run down and get our frappuccinos snacks and head back up and we'd just work on drafts and drafts and drafts,” said Arellano who looked fondly on her late nights in J-201.

According to Arellano, Ka Leo journalists “were given that creative freedom to just pursue and talk about the columns that existed. And it was just fun. It was a lot of fun.” She added that, “in terms of creativity, that was nurtured and encouraged, and so it was just a great space.”

Ka Leo Luna published its last issue in October of 2016. For 8 years, Lahainaluna students were silent. Then, in August of 2024, Ka Lama Hawaiʻi, now an online publication, published its first issue. Its first story, a feature on the endangered Kāhuli (snails), was written by Trinity Guiza.

Ka Lama Hawaiʻi  (Again)

Ka Lama Hawaiʻi was  named in honor of the first newspaper in Hawaiʻi by a small group of students, The News Writing Club, under the direction of its current advisor in Spring of 2023. 

The News Writing Club did not produce much content, though over the course of several meetings, they determined the paper’s layout, its sections, and that the name should point to the school’s history as the birthplace of the news in Hawaiʻi.

They also planned the paper’s purpose, which included the amplification of student voices as well as the voices of people at Lahainaluna that students rarely meet–such as the custodial staff and office workers–a “We <3 LHS Staff” for student-generated profiles.  

Much more writing for Ka Lama was produced after it became a class. In the Fall of 2024, the school offered Journalistic Writing and enrolled a small team of student reporters who spent their year learning interview techniques and practicing an objective reporting methodologies. They covered school policies, student wellness, sports, and student life.

Since its first issue, many have recognized Ka Lama’s significance to not only our school but to the state.  

Jean Martin Alternado, currently a junior, thinks that the paper points to the fact that “we are the most historic school in the state.” He thinks that the paper may help to spread awareness about Lahainalunaʻs legacy since “there's only a few students who really care about it.” Alternado published a story about students being held in the cafeteria and the issue of teacher shortages in Ka Lama’s first year.

“[Ka Lama Hawaiʻi] is for people to share stories, to keep people updated, to see different perspectives of things that people didn’t really have resources to know,” said Alternado.

Freshman Grayson Guzman, also a contributor to the paper, thought that Ka Lama was “important back then and now as we hold this legacy of having the first newspaper in Hawaiʻi published here by students.”

Students recognize Ka Lama not just for its historical important on campus but for its impact on students' engagement with difficult topics, which is something that Ka Lama continues to do to this day. 

As Guzman notes, “today we still have this with students publishing articles giving voice to important topics.” “Our school newspaper is important so students can shed light on topics within our school and enlighten others.” 

Alternado has seen what the newspaper can accomplish, referring to recent coverage of sensitive student issues. “It spoke a few words that some people were too scared to say,” he said. “If we don’t have a voice, then what are we really going to change?”

Student Stephanie Rubio Aguirre agrees: “Student voice is important because we want to hear the opinions on what students think about certain opinions.” She continued, saying “I feel like [Ka Lama] is something that students can look forward to whenever someone wants to read something about our school.”

Current sophomore class president, Brianne Lagazo, comments on how when articles come out she “usually skim(s)” because as she states, “I enjoy reading what’s being presented and I am impressed by how these students are so good with writing and journalism itself.” Lagazo recently published a story about a controversy at private high school in the Lahaina community.

Nicole Heinlein notices the usefulness of Ka Lama as “we don't necessarily have like, a comment box where students can voice their concerns.”

The Future of Journalism at Lahainaluna

Ka Lama brings attention to the fact that our campus has problems, and that we must acknowledge them to fix them. 

The newspaper's legacy, and the legacy of literacy in Hawaiʻi that it created, is carried by this new Ka Lama. There’s no way to measure if we’re doing it justice, but we do know that with it, students are being heard. Or, to leave with something that Aguirre said: “I feel represented.”