Lizzie Kapoli Kamakau was a Hawaiian composer and musician. She served as protège and lady-in-waiting to Queen Liliʻuokalani until she contracted leprosy and was exiled to the leper colony of Kalaupapa.
Early life
Lizzie Kapoli was born in either 1851 or 1852. Her father was ʻUmi Kukaʻilani. ʻUmi would later marry a patient at Kalaupapa named Hana. She lived in the household of Bernice Pauahi Bishop and her husband Charles Reed Bishop. She formed a close friendship with the future Queen Liliʻuokalani and Princess Likelike. A member of the Kaohuokalani Singing Club founded by Liliʻuokalani, she helped composed numerous songs with the two royal sisters. One of her first collaborative composition was Liko Pua Lehua with Liliʻuokalani and Likelike. This tune was adapted from Thou E Ka Nani Mae ʻOle. After the death of Likelike in 1887, she composed kanikau with Eliza W. Holt and Liliʻuokalani. In May 1887, her letters indicate she wrote O Makalapua, in honor of Liliʻuokalani, and shared the lyrics and music notes with the then princess while she was traveling to the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. In Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, Liliʻuokalani wrote of her relationship with two of her other Hawaiian protèges Eveline Townsend Wilson and Sophie Sheldon: In her will, Princess Keʻelikōlani bequeathed Kapoli her house lot on Queen Street, Honolulu and a piece of land called Kaʻala, near Joseph O. Carter's residence, for her lifetime. After the 1844 death of Bernice Pauahi Bishop, Kapoli was also provided with monthly allowance of 40 dollars in her will.
Exile to Kalaupapa
Liliʻuokalani recorded the event leading to her exile for leprosy. Writing on January 22, 1888, Liliʻuokalani noted, “Recd letter from Kapoli telling me that she had been reported to board of health & perhaps will be sent to Kalawao. Poor Lizzie—sat thinking of her all evening and writing Music.” On March 1, 1888, Kapoli was admitted to Kakaʻako Branch Hospital for inspection. She successfully petitioned the governmental Board of Health for her father ʻUmi to accompany her to the colony as her kōkua before on April 27. On May 1, she and twenty-eight other individuals departed for the leper colony of Kalaupapa on Molokai. Liliʻuokalani's diary noted, "Went to Kakaako to bid Kapoli good bye." Between to Kapoli's admission to Kakaʻako and departure for Kalaupapa, Charles Reed Bishop wrote to Superintendent of Kalaupapa Rudolph Wilhelm Meyer and Minister of Interiors Lorrin A. Thurston about building a home for female patients in the colony. Through the intercession of Bishop, the government built the Bishop Home to allow Kapoli and other women and girls to reside away from the general population of patients. In 1889, the Catholic sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis: Mother Marianne Cope, Sisters Vincentia McCormick and Leopoldina Burns were charged with the care of the patients at Bishop Home. Kapoli possibly taught singing to the girls at Bishop House and taught students how to play the organ at the Protestant church. Kapoli died on July 27, 1891, at Kalaupapa, from influenza complicated by dysentery. Researcher Colette Higgins note that Liliʻuokalani possibly visited Kapoli at Bishop House before her death. Liliʻuokalani was visiting Kalaupapa for her third time but first as reigning monarch, on April 27, 1891, as part of her tour of the islands. Kapoli was buried at Kalaupapa. Her father and his second wife were later buried next to her.
