Kaʻahumanu (March 17, 1768 – June 5, 1832) ("the feathered mantle") was queen consort and acted as regent of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi as Kuhina Nui.

The council of advisors agreed and created the post of kuhina nui for her, which was similar to co-regent or modern-day prime minister.

Notably, she also convinced the Kahuna-nui (translatable to High Priest) of the kingdom, Hewahewa, to support her efforts to abolish the kapu.

In April 1824, Kaʻahumanu publicly acknowledged her conversion to Protestant Christianity and encouraged her subjects to be baptized into the faith.

[3] That same year, she presented Hawaiʻi with its first codified body of laws modeled after Christian ethics and values, and the Ten Commandments.

[4]: 278 Missionaries persuaded Kaʻahumanu that the Roman Catholic Church, which had established the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, should be removed from the island nation.

[5] As regent of Hawai'i after the death of her husband, King Kamehameha I, Ka'ahumanu took it upon herself to enforce Christian policies with her power, banning of the Hawaiian Dance hula in 1830.

Kaʻahumanu and King Kamehameha III negotiated the first treaty between the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the United States in 1826, under the administration of President John Quincy Adams.

During her illness missionaries printed the first copy, bound in red leather with her name engraved in gold letters, of the New Testament in the Hawaiian language.

The monument of Kaumualiʻi in Waiola Church cemetery includes the inscription, "Kaahumanu was his wife, Year 1822," leading some to mistakenly conclude that she is buried there.

A portion of the Hawaii Belt Road, state highway 19, on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi is named in her honor.