Thursday, June 23, 2022

THE STOLEN BONES OF HAWAI`I



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SFGate - June 5, 2022

For decades, the Bishop Museum, still Hawaii’s preeminent cultural history museum, was a collector of iwi kupuna, many of them from the Mokapu Peninsula, now most widely known as the home of Marine Corps Base Hawaii. The museum’s director even offered bounties for the remains of Native Hawaiians, effectively turning grave robbery into a scavenger hunt. The sand dunes on the beaches of Mokapu soon proved to be a bountiful playground for the scavengers. 

All told, the iwi, or skeletal remains, of as many as 3,000 babies, teens and adults were taken from Mokapu and given to the Bishop Museum between 1915 and 1993. For much of that time, the museum lent the collection out regularly to anthropologists for study, including eugenicists and other race "scientists." 

“Our black and brown bones were not treated as human remains,” Razon-Olds told SFGATE. “It was just a fun way for archaeologists to see and learn, and you know, it was like a reward for them to dig up our family.” 

 

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