Scots Pocahontas stars in new film

SHE was the original 'People's Princess' and one of the most stunning and sophisticated young women of the age.

Ka'iulani, Crown Princess of Hawaii, was also renowned for her fiery temper while fighting for the independence of her island nation. Those who knew her say she got it from her Scottish father Archie Cleghorn.

Now this largely-forgotten story of the half-Hawaiian, half-Scottish princess is about to reach a new international audience through a Hollywood movie which began shooting in the islands last week. Barbarian Princess will star the 18-year-old Q'orianka Kilcher, who was Pocahontas in the Oscar-nominated epic The New World. Veteran Scottish actor Jimmy Yuill will play Cleghorn, a merchant from Edinburgh, who married into Hawaii's royal family.

The film will track the exploits of the exotic royal beauty as she travelled around the world, including her visit to Scotland in 1891. Like the Native American Pocahontas, she became an international celebrity.

Marc Forby, the film's writer and director, said: "It's just the great untold American story, and it's time for the Hawaiians to have the truth told about how their nation came to an end. It's a very powerful tale."

He has his Hawaiian wife to thank for the idea. "I saw a picture of the princess and it inspired me to do research on her. And I just thought 'Yes, she is the cinematic way to tell the story.' She symbolises her nation."

Ka'iulani's personal story unfolds against the historical backdrop of the annexation of Hawaii by the United States, which was motivated by a familiar mix of colonial ambitions and commercial interests.

Although only 17 years old, Ka'iulani went to the US to plead for the continued independence of her far-off island kingdom in the Pacific Ocean. Americans expected a half-naked cannibal and were amazed at the vision of dark-eyed, dusky beauty that stepped from the ship, dressed in the latest Paris couture.

She won over President Grover Cleveland and an official inquiry condemned the actions of US diplomatic and military representatives. But Congressmen put business and military interests first and refused to back down. Ka'iulani returned home and died in 1899, seemingly of a broken heart.

Hawaii's status as a US territory was formalised the following year and it became the 50th state of the Union in 1959.

The princess's father, Archie Cleghorn, was born in Edinburgh in 1835. His father shipped first to New Zealand and then Hawaii, where he opened a store. His son took over while still in his teens and showed a good head for business.

Cleghorn had three children with his native housekeeper, before marrying the teenage Hawaiian princess Likelike in 1870. Their daughter was born five years later and named Princess Victoria Kawekiu Lunalilo Kalaninuiahilapalapa Ka'iulani Cleghorn.

She got to know Robert Louis Stevenson, who went to the South Seas for his health. He wrote a poem for her, in which he called her an "island rose" and "the daughter of a double race".

Forby said: "She was very proud of both her cultures. The Hawaiian people welcomed other cultures and there was a lot of interracial marriage going on."

Ka'iulani visited merchant friends of the Hawaiian royal family in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1891. "She went to Dreghorn Castle (in Edinburgh], which we think no longer exists," said Forby. "But we found a gatehouse that still has a stone up there which says Aloha and there's a boat on it."

Forby added: "She looked at the Treaty (of Union between England and Scotland] and she found similarities between what was about to happen to her nation and what had happened to Scotland."

The Hawaiian king died while Ka'iulani was in Britain and although his sister succeeded him, she was overthrown in 1893.

Ka'iulani's mother had died when she was 11 and she was next in line to the throne. She went to the US to argue the cases for independence and was the darling of the press.

They reported her every move. A relationship blossomed between her and a young Englishman Clive Davies, played by Shaun Evans in the film.