Kauka Makalua: Searching for the First Hawaiian Doctor of Western Medicine

The Hawaiian Historical Society invites its members and friends to a free public program, Kauka Makalua: Searching for the first Hawaiian Doctor of Western Medicine. The program will take place on Thursday, March 23, 2006, at 7:30 p.m. at the Mission Memorial Auditorium, located at 550 South King Street, Honolulu, between Honolulu Hale and the Sky Gate sculpture. Doors open at 7:00 p.m.

Dr. Benjamin B. C. Young will give a Powerpoint presentation on his search for Hawaiians who studied Western medicine, in particular, Dr. Matthew Manuia Makalua, the first Hawaiian doctor of Western medicine.

When Young began his career with the John A. Burns School of Medicine in 1972, Dean Terence Rogers asked him to start a progam to get more Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders into medicine. As Young concentrated on this task, he started thinking about the early Hawaiian scholars of Western medicine and ultimately wondered who was the first.

Drawing of Matthew M. Makalua Young thought he knew the answer to that question until he read Agnes Quigg's article, "Kalākaua's Hawaiian Studies Abroad Program," in the 1988 issue of the Hawaiian Journal of History. He realized then that Matthew Maklua was probably the first Hawaiian to study Western medicine seriously. Makalua was one of eighteen young Hawaiians sent abroad from 1880 to 1887 by King Kalākaua to study engineering, law, foreign language, medicine, military science, engraving, sculpture, and music. Makalua went to Engliand to study medicine and never returned to Hawai‘i.

The love of history and adventure sent Young to England in his quest for answers. He searched out schools, family, and the final resting place of Makalua. Through this investigation, and others, he learned much about Hawaiian physicians, especially those who played a part in Hawai‘i's history in the first half of the twentieth century.

Dr. Benjamin B. C. Young is executive director of the Native Hawaiian Center of Excellence at the John A. Burns School of Medicine. He is the first person of Hawaiian ancestry to become a psychiatrist. His interests are diverse. He served as a crew member on the 1976 voyage of the Hokule‘a, and, in 2005, he was designated a "Living Treasure of Hawai‘i" by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawai‘i.