For senior quilter Gussie R Bento, ideas of sovereignty and the continuance of her culture, as well as a seemingly endless reserve of patience, equipped her for the painstaking task of appliquéing a multitude of stitches to create the quilts known in Hawai’i as kapa kuiki. Thousands of fine, hidden stitches are needed to appliqué designs onto pieces of cloth, and these cloth layers are then stitched together to form the quilt. In Bento’s kapa kuiki, the artists tiny hand stitches repeat the shape of a central design in closely radiating patterns.

Numerous designs by kapa kuiki artists illustrate the desire to encourage awareness of the history of the royal family of Hawai’i and the circumstances of their overthrow. Held illegally in house detention in Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu by representatives of the incoming government, the reigning monarch Queen Liliʻuokalani spent her days fighting for the rights of her people and sewing kapa kuiki with her ladies-in-waiting. Many women responded to their beleaguered Queen’s forced abdication in 1895, and the lowering of the Hawaiian flag, by creating kapa kuiki with flag motifs or other royal insignia. Contemporary examples of these textiles continue to be created to commemorate significant dates relating to the monarchy.

In Na Kalaunu Me Na Kahili (The crown with the kahili of Kamehameha IV) c.1980, Bento used the symbols of the kahili (feather standards indicating the presence of chiefs) and crowns to venerate the Hawaiian monarchy, while the ornate border references the gates of King Kamehameha IV’s residence. During his short reign (1855–63), Kamehameha attempted to counteract the economic and political influence wielded by the United States in Hawai’i. Both a a graduate and teacher of the Kamehameha School for Girls, established by Ke Ali'i Bernice Pauahi Pākī Bishop (1831–84), a member of the royal family, to ensure the education of Kanaka Ōiwi (Hawaiian) girls, Bento stitches continue the work of her monarch.