HAWAIIAN BURIALS THREATENED
Native Hawaiians Seek To Protect Sacred Items
On Saturday, May 29, 2004, Hawaiians will hold a 24-hour vigil at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum beginning at noon to pray for the protection of iwi küpuna (ancestral remains) and moepü (burial objects) from Kawaihae. Their actions are in response to Bishop Museum efforts to re-open a burial cave from where these items originated and where they are now laid back to rest.
In 1905 looters broke into a Kawaihae burial cave stealing from it sacred iwi (bones) of ali'i (chiefs) and their moepü placed with them. The Bishop Museum soon after appraised and purchased the iwi and moepü with full knowledge of the theft. In 2000, Hui Mälama I Nä Küpuna O Hawai'i Nei secured these items back in the cave from which they were stolen.
By 2001, after years of deliberation, the process involving the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was concluded with respect to the Kawaihae case, and resulted in the iwi and moepü remaining in the Kawaihae cave. But Bishop Museum Director William Brown is attempting to undo this outcome.
"Brown seeks to desecrate Hawaiian burials. When the Kawaihae burial cave was first looted in 1905, the director of the Museum at that time, Dr. William Brigham, knew of how the items were acquired, but instead of informing the authorities, he suggested a way to help conceal the theft and later acquired the items for the Museum. What¹s even more disgraceful is that nearly a century later the same colonialism and paternalism persists at Bishop Museum in the form of Dr. William Brown," says Dr. Jon Osorio, Acting Director of the University of Hawai'i Kamakaküokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies.
Brown refuses to repatriate iwi küpuna and moepü from Molokai against the dictates of NAGPRA even going so far as firing the Vice President of Cultural Studies (a Native Hawaiian) for insisting that the repatriation occur. Brown is also attempting to maintain the Museum¹s dubious ownership of mea kapu (sacred objects) seized from 'Iolani Palace by the Provisional Government shortly after the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, thwarting the efforts of Hawaiians to restore these objects permanently to the Palace. Brown has forbidden Native Hawaiian Museum staff from conducting cultural protocols that they feel are called for in the work that they do at the Museum.
Vigil participants plan to remain at the Museum overnight and to have a continual presence at Museum events until they are assured that the Museum Board has directed Brown to permanently halt all efforts to remove the iwi küpuna and moepü from the Kawaihae burial cave.
Says Pu'uhonua Bumpy Kanahele of the Nation of Hawai'i, "Our presence at the vigil is meant to communicate how serious and committed we are. If Brown or anyone else attempts to violate the Kawaihae burial cave, we¹ll be there to meet them. All of us who care for our küpuna, we will be there."
