Lydia Kaʻonohiponiponiokalani Aholo
Lydia Kaʻonohiponiponiokalani Aholo (February 6, 1878 – July 7, 1979) was the namesake and hānai daughter of Queen Liliʻuokalani of Hawaiʻi. She became an educator and was the first person to formally teach the Hawaiian language at Kamehameha Schools.
She was born February 6, 1878, in Lahaina, Maui. Her father, Luther Aholo, would become a leading politician and secretary to Governor John Owen Dominis, husband of the future queen. Her mother was Keahi Aholo, who died shortly after Lydia’s birth. Because Liliʻuokalani had no children of her own, she adopted Lydia as her child under the Hawaiian tradition of hānai, despite disapproval from Lydia’s husband, her mother-in-law, and her brother King Kalākaua. Lydia grew up in the royal household with her hānai mother and hānai brothers. Liliʻuokalani also adopted Joseph Kaiponohea ʻAeʻa and John ʻAimoku Dominis.
Lydia attended Kawaiahaʻo Female Seminary and graduated from the Kamehameha School for Girls in 1897. She also studied music at Oberlin College. In Liliʻuokalani’s old age, Lydia became a trusted confidante to her hānai mother. She worked with principal Ida May Pope at Kamehameha School and taught Hawaiian language until she retired at 75. She never married or had children, but she remained devoted to her extended family. Later in life, she became a mother figure to her grandniece and grandnephews, who called her Aunty Tūtū. She also influenced her grandnephew Alfred Apaka, a singer who popularized romantic Hawaiian ballads in the 1950s.
In 1969, Helen G. Allen interviewed Aholo at Maunalani Hospital in Kaimuki. Allen used the tapes for her 1982 book The Betrayal of Liliuokalani, and parts of the tapes were rediscovered in 2008 by historian Sandra Bonura. Aholo died on July 7, 1979, at the age of 101. She was buried at Nuʻuanu Memorial Park.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 12:22 (CET).