This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Waiting for Peace.’ See more responses here.

This peaceful scene was taken at Pelekane Beach in Kawaihae. It’s a favorite spot of mine for an early morning walk, when it’s very quiet and calm. But it hasn’t always been that way.

In the late 1700s, King Kamehameha I ruled the north and west parts of Hawaii Island, but was engaged in a war with his cousin who ruled in the east. Kamehameha was advised to build a sacrificial temple for Kūkaʻilimoku, the war god. So Kamehameha had Puʻukoholā Heiau built. That’s the structure silhouetted on the hill to the left of the photo.

Kamehameha invited his cousin to the site, ostensibly to talk peace, but when his cousin arrived, he and his entourage were duly captured and became the first sacrifices to dedicate the temple. So not so peaceful after all. But this action ultimately led to Kamehameha being able to bring all the islands under his rule, ending many years of fighting and bringing stability and peace to Hawaii.

That situation largely lasted until the late 1800s when the Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown in a coup d’état by a group seeking annexation to the United States. This duly happened, though the aftershocks of this event continue to disturb the peace in the islands to this day.