A Legacy in Bloom
Queen Emma’s healing spirit is reflected in the celebratory design of the International Market Place’s Celestial Pool and Queen’s Garden.
✏️ LINDSEY KESEL
📸 SKYE YONAMINE & COURTESY OF STARGAZERS HAWAII
Queen Emma Kalanikaumaka‘amano Kaleleonālani Na‘ea Rooke was a visionary leader who devised clever and creative ways to provide for her people in perpetuity. With her humanitarian acts—ranging from founding schools, churches, and a hospital, to designating royal land to fund these institutions—the headstrong wife of King Kamehameha IV ignited a spark that would warm future generations. The valuable parcels of land she set aside in trust, including her homestead in the ‘ili (subdivision) of Kaluaokau, Waikīkī, served to insulate Hawaiians against the calamitous consequences of Western contact, including dwindling resources and rising health disparities.
Situated in Kaluaokau and part of the Queen Emma Land Trust, International Market Place helps sustain Queen Emma’s benevolent endeavors—‘Iolani School, St. Andrew’s Priory, and her most famous contribution, The Queen’s Medical Center (formerly known as the Queen’s Hospital), the largest private nonprofit hospital in Hawai‘i. To honor Queen Emma and her abiding gifts, the shopping center’s Queen’s Court features two emblematic design elements: the Queen’s garden and the celestial pool.
In the Queen’s garden, a variety of native plants vital to Hawaiian herbal medicine and royal tradition are found, including ‘ape, a natural remedy for burns and fever; ‘ēkaha (bird’s nest fern), helpful for treating asthma; and pōhinahina, sourced for medicinal tea. Also woven in are hāpu‘u, (Hawaiian tree fern), used in dressing wounds; kalo (taro), used to halt bleeding; and kī (ti), a treatment for asthma, fever, and headaches.
Planted up on Level 3 is ‘ōhi‘a lehua, its flower clusters sourced to alleviate childbirth pains, and hala, helpful for targeting thrush, childbirth difficulties, and chest pain. The royal plant ‘a‘ali‘i—a key ingredient in a potion to remedy skin rash—and ‘uki’uki—its berries a source of a purple-blue dye used in royal garments and accessories—can also be spotted around the courtyard.
On the Diamond Head side of Queen’s Court, the celestial pool is an elusive water feature created in the image of Lake Waiau, a heart-shaped body of water near the summit of Maunakea on the island of Hawai‘i. A divine site for Native Hawaiian ceremonies and healing rituals, Lake Waiau became a healing destination for Queen Emma after the tragic death of her beloved husband and son.
A backlit stone disc forms the basin of the celestial pool, representing an illuminated night sky in the period of Ke Kā o Makali‘i (the Canoe-Bailer of Makali‘i)—a Hawaiian starline visible on winter nights that includes ‘A‘ā (commonly known as Sirius), the brightest star in the sky and a crucial point of reference in Native Hawaiian wayfinding. With design help from the late master navigator Kālepa Baybayan, the pool also illustrates the four cardinal directions of the Hawaiian star compass—hikina (east), komohana (west), ‘ākau (north) and hema (south)—along with the four major winds and seven directional houses that guide the rising and setting of various stars and constellations in each quadrant.
As the last royal visitor to make the long trek to the piko kapu, or sacred center, of Maunakea in 1881, Queen Emma was seeking solace and rejuvenation in Lake Waiau. In the clear, shallow calm of the celestial pool, one senses the hint of comfort that Queen Emma might have felt as she immersed herself in the healing waters where earth and sky meet.
The heavens are within reach, even amid the dense urban playground of Waikīkī. With the help of a powerful telescope, Stargazers of Hawai‘i brings planets, stars, and other wonders of deep space into view during star shows on International Market Place’s Level 3 Grand Lānai. On special occasions, extended two-hour stargazing events are held on Level 6.
For schedule updates and tickets, visit https://shopinternationalmarketplace.com/events/stargazing
