Aunty Emma deFries outside Honolulu’s old federal courthouse, May 1977

I recently came across this iconic photo among my Kahoolawe archives. I believe it was taken on May 19, 1977, when members and allies of the Protect Kahoolawe Ohana gathered at Honolulu’s old federal courthouse. I was there at the court that day with a camera. This was one of a series of gatherings at the court when proceedings were scheduled to stand with those who had been arrested and charged with trespassing during unauthorized landings on the Navy-controlled island.

It was, I believe, the first time that many PKO supporters came to court in traditional garb, from gourd helmets to malo as they asserted Native Hawaiian cultural identity and ancestral rights as part of the movement to stop the bombing.

And in the midst of the scrum trying to get past security at the doors, I spotted the familiar face of Emma deFries, a key spiritual advisor of the PKO. I don’t know if she was ubiquitous at PKO meetings, social gatherings, and public events, but it felt that way.

I did a litle edit to lighten her face so that it would stand out in the crowd. In this original B&W version, she ends up looking almost ethereal.

When I went looking for more information on her life, I found most of it unsatisfying. The search found plenty of facts, but offered little to appreciate her spirit. For example, here’s a standard obituary, full of awards and recognitions, which I think was originally published by the Honolulu Advertiser.

But a brief obituary by Star-Bulletin writer Murry Engle captured a more meaningful and satisfying (at least to me) moment.

I’m taking the liberty of reprinting Engle’s short piece below.

Emma deFries
Knew That Her
Time Had Come

By Murry Engle
Star-Bulletin Writer
December 9, 1980

Emma de Fries demonstrated in her lifetime that she knew how to live. She was the most visible 20th century
kahuna of the la’aukahea (healing) order of Hawaiian kahunas, whose power or mana is in prayer and analysis.

Yesterday in the cool of early morning, under bright stars set in a velvet black sky, on the aina (land) and beside the sea, she showed that she also knew how to die.

She had spent Sunday night at Queen’s Hospital, where she had been a patient for a week. Sometime after mid-night, she told the more than 30 family members friends who were with her that she wanted to go to Kaaawa Beach.

“She had all her faculties together, but she was getting pretty low,” said Olga Mitchell, a hanai daughter and former assistant curator at Queen Emma Summer Palace. “I think she knew that death was near.”

Dr. Emmett Aluli, Molokai physician and spokesman for Protect Kahoolawe ‘Ohana, said he was encouraged that her Oahu physician let her “die the way she chose, with the people she loved and on the aina.”

MITCHELL SAID, “She loved the elements – the earth, the sun, the wind, the rain and the water. She liked to go to Kaaawa because it was peaceful.”

Arriving at 3:23 a.m., she was taken to the beach and then, “She was resting, really resting,” Aluli said.

She died at 4 a.m.

“The people who gathered and who were part of the whole process of dying, were left with her spirit,” Aluli
said.