RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Above, students and kupuna from Kamakau School, Kamehameha Schools and Na Ali'i O Hawaii took a self-guided Hawaiian-language tour of Iolani Palace yesterday.
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Guided by Hawaiian
Iolani Palace has first-ever audio tour made in native language
Star-Bulletin staff
Visitors to Iolani Palace can now walk through the home of Hawaii's last monarch while listening to an audio tour in the Hawaiian language.
Students from the Hawaiian immersion Kamakau School participated yesterday in the inaugural tour.
The palace has offered self-guided tours in English since 2006 and added Japanese last year. The latest addition is the first Hawaiian-language tour ever produced for a museum, palace officials said.
The new tour keeps with the tradition of Queen Kapiolani, who always spoke in her native language, according to the museum.
The audio tour is narrated by Puakea Nogelmeier with character voices and interviews by Prince Quentin Kawananakoa. Period quotations or interviews with living people are in English, while the rest of the narration is in Hawaiian.
All audio tours feature music and sound effects, including excerpts from the writings of Queen Liliuokalani as she recalls her imprisonment in the palace. King Kalakaua had Iolani Palace built 125 years ago to enhance the prestige of Hawaii overseas and to mark Hawaii's status as a modern nation.
Antenna Audio, which developed the basic audio tour with help from palace staff, has designed similar tours for other royal residences around the world, including Versailles, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace and Edinburgh Castle, in addition to museums such as the Louvre, Vatican Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The audio tours are available Tuesday through Saturday from 11:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Admission is $12 for adults. Children 5 to 12 years old pay $5.
More information is available by calling 522-0822 or online at www.iolanipalace.org.
RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
The royal crowns and other artifacts are on display in the basement gallery of Iolani Palace.
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