Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 12, 1 Kekemapa 1988 — In Kawaiahao Cemetery [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

In Kawaiahao Cemetery

Queen Street Remains Reinterred

A gentle rain accompanied the start of a special ceremony Sunday November 20 at the Kawaiahao Church cemetery, to reinter the remains of 107 individuals discovered over the last year during excavation of Queen Street as part of the ongoing Kakaako redevelopment project. The rain soon gave way to warm sunshine as with prayers and hymns, the gathered crowd of 100 witnessed the reburial of the remains in a new crypt dug within the church cemetery, near the corner of Queen and Punchbowl Streets. The service was led by Kahu William Kaina, assistant pastor Dean Fujii and deacon Meali'i Kalama. A memoria! plaque will mark the spot. The remains were first discovered a year ago when a portion of Queen Street just makai of the cemetery boundary was being excavated for a new sewer line. According to Dr. Joyce Bath of the State Historic Preservation Office, the Territorial Government acquired about 30 feet of Kawaiahao cemetery property on the seaward side. She said the burials, whieh may date back to the 1830s, may have been unmarked, and there were no existing records to identify the individuals. Later, the property was paved over to create that segment of Queen Street. When the Hawaii Community Dev.elopment Authority (HCOA), a state agency in charge of the Kakaako redevelopment project, initiated excavation of the street last year, bones began to be discovered. The project was halted, and the site immediately blessed by Assistant Pastor Dean Fujii of Kawaiahao Church. Archaeologist Hal Hammett, of Cultural Surveys Hawaii, was hired to supervise the careful removal of remains. Hammett remains as project archaeologist on eall as the Kakaako project continues. A key influence in seeing to the reburial was Mrs. Healani Doane, who was elected in April this year as a Kawaiahao Church trustee, and who is a member of the cemetery committee, along with Mercy Cathcart. She said when they realized this spring that the remains were not yet buried and were to be part of a osteology survey by the University of Hawai'i, they mobilized church support to request immediate reinterment. This was authorized by Department of Land and Natural Resources Chairman William W. Paty. Doane called the reinterment service "very dig-

nified and solemn. . .very touching and very elegant." Her strong belief is "You have to malama your kupuna. If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be here." She said it was important to remember "They (the 107 individua!s) were somebody's kupuna. . ,perhaps our own." Kawaiahao Church provided the cemetery space, the Hawai'i Community Development Authority provided the concrete crypt, whieh measures five by eight feet and is five feet deep. Office of Hawaiian Affairs Lands Division officer Linda Kawai'ono Delaney contacted Laie weaver Mrs. Emeline Unga, who is Tongan, to make individual lauhala caskets and white kapa for a Ha-waiian-style reburial. Working with her family , they wove 108 baskets in six weeks' time, and also made plain white kapa from wauke trees in her garden. She said it was an honor to be asked to provide the baskets. As Kahu Kaina completed the benediction he noted that "our beloved friends of yesteryear" would now be "carefully laid to rest with dignity and aloha, no more to be disturbed." A pa'ina provided by HCDA followed.

After the memorial service shown here led by Kahu William Kaina, Kawaiahaocongregation members placed ieis upon the lauhala caskets before the crypt was sealed.