By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Statue of a grieving woman at
Kawaiahao Church cemetery.

Kawaiahao cemetery
statue intrigues

"Far, far away, quite on the other side of Earth, lie lonely islands dreaming in the Pacific Ocean ... In many an anxious hour, I have felt my mind in peace when thinking of these distant islands where there always is summer and beauty ..."

Or so noted Norwegian sculptor Stephan Sinding on his work "The Blessed Souls Wandering Toward Light," a grave marker installed in 1911 in Lihue Cemetery on Kauai. The piece was commissioned by plantation doyen Dora Isenberg, whose cousin Anna Rice Cooke (founder of the Honolulu Academy of Arts) was mightily impressed with its artistry. So much so that she may have been the impetus behind Sinding's next Hawaii work, this week's Wat Dat -- the evocative statue of a grieving woman in the cemetery at Kawaiahao Church. It is not a headstone marker itself, and the model echoes one of the Kauai figures.

The property belongs to Mission Houses Museum, and curator/historian Deborah Dunn dug out documentation on the statue, which mainly consists of letters piecing together the work's background.

The statue was cast in 1912. Sinding was a well-known sculptor in Norway, where his works still grace public buildings, and loved the notion of his works in faraway Hawaii.

"Honolulu! That resonates like the cooing of the wild wood dove, in a singular, strange, inviting way," enthused the artist at the time.