The Kaʻahumanu Society is the oldest Hawaiian civic society, predating the
Royal Order of Kamehameha I by a year. Named after Queen
Kaʻahumanu, the favorite wife of King
Kamehameha I and the
Kuhina Nui (co-ruler, or regent) of his successors, the organization celebrated traditional Hawaiian female leadership. The organization's original mission was to nurse victims of the smallpox epidemic and provide proper burial for the dead. It was disbanded after Princess Victoria's death in 1866. On June 14, 1905, after an abeyance of thirty-nine years, the group was rechartered under the leadership of
Lucy Kaopaulu Peabody, a lady-in-waiting of the former Hawaiian royal court, and a group of eleven women, in a ceremony at Kawaiahaʻo Church. The organization chose not to invite the deposed Queen Liliuokalani to join even though she had been an original member of the 1864 club. Today, women of the society wear black
muʻumuʻu dresses with yellow
lei hulu, black gloves and hat, all symbolic of Queen Kaʻahumanu. Memberships are restricted to women of Native Hawaiian descent who are invited to join. There are nine chapters across Hawaii. The modern group continued the original mission of nursing the sick and the elderly and aiding in burial expenses for the deceased while also fundraising for charitable causes, promoting Hawaiian culture and representing the Hawaiian monarchy at special events such as the annual
Kamehameha Day parades. ==References==