The hard life and times of Henry Opukahaia, in Cornwall and Hawaii

CORNWALL — The Cornwall Historical Society celebrated one of the most famous lives from its town history at Cornwall’s United Church of Christ, Congregational on Sunday, Oct. 6.

Henry Opukahaia, a native of Hawaii, spent part of his short life in Cornwall, at the Foreign Mission School, a rural experiment in teaching Western ways to people who had grown up in very different cultures. 

Opukahaia was a man of dignity who had been gifted with intellect and remarkable memory. He translated the Bible from the ancient text to the Hawaiian language and invented the Hawaiian alphabet so that words could be written, not just memorized.

His life ended in Cornwall in 1818 when he succumbed to typhus and was buried in the Cornwall cemetery. 

The Oct. 6 remembrance of his life was jointly sponsored by the church and the historical society, and was presented by the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives of Honolulu.  That group is observing what they term “200 years connecting Hawaii to New England.”

“It is sort of an extraordinary thing,” said Lisa Simont, president of the Cornwall Historical Society.

To enjoy those connections, 85 people were drawn to the performance in two parts. The first half presented Hawaiian vocalist Po‘ai Lincoln, who presented the history of the missionary movement through a program of Hawaiian native songs. When the missionaries brought Christianity, they damaged the cultural and emotional fabric of the native Hawaiians.

A welcome by Neal Hitch, executive director of the Mission Houses organization, indicated that the traveling program has been three years in the making, including the commissioning of a play to humanize the history and drama of the life of Henry Opukahaia. That life escaped brutality and endured. 

On Monday, Oct. 21, another program is planned at the site of the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall and at the cemetery to present the history of the return of Opukahaia’s remains to Hawaii in 1993.

Hitch said that when the first group of missionaries sailed from Boston harbor on Oct. 23, 1819, they sailed east to the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) by rounding the southern tip of Africa and continuing east, arriving at their destination on April 4, 1820. 

By May 3, the first group of missionaries had found their ways to each of the four islands.

The one-act, one person play titled “My Name is Opukahaia” was written and performed by Moses Goods, acclaimed Hawaiiian storyteller and actor. Hitch introduced the play as showing the human side of trauma, sacrifice and redemption.

During the program, the Mission Houses organization presented the Cornwall Historical Society with a framed grouping of portraits of the original group of six missionaries to leave Cornwall’s Foreign Mission School. Accepting the gift on behalf of the society, Simont announced that the society’s museum would create a permanent display devoted to the Foreign Mission School and the influence of Henry Opukahaia.