Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 8, 1 August 1991 — Remains return to Kauaʻi from D.C. [ARTICLE]

Remains return to Kauaʻi from D.C.

by Deborah L. Ward Editor, Ka Wai Ola O OHA This month the remains of over 100 Native Hawaiian individuals will be returned to Kaua'i from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. for reburial on their home island. The remains, mostly skulls, were removed from the island in the late 1800s by collector Valdemar Knudsen, and have been in the Smithsonian's collections since then. A joint request to conclude the repatriation of all Native Hawaiian human remains currently being curated at the Smithsonian lnstitution was sent in a letter last month to the Smithsonian by Lydia Namahana Maioho, chairperson of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Native Hawaiian Historic Preservation CounciI, La France Kapaka-

Arboleda of the 'Ohana Maha'ulepu, and Edward Kanahele of the Hui Malama I Na Kupuna. A group of about 18 representatives of these organizations will travel to Washington and will bring home the remains on Aug. 11. Remains will be privately wrapped and placed in wooden lauhala caskets at the Smithsonian. A reburial ceremony has been planned by the 'Ohana Maha'ulepu for Aug. 12 at Keoneloa, where the remains were orginally removed. The 'Ohana Maha'ulepu members elaim lineal descent from the individuals being returned to Kaua'i. Also being repatriated at the same time are the mummified remains of a girl collected from Hanaoene, Kaua'i in the collection of the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and additional Hawaiian bones identified by the

Smithsonian Institution during an inventory. These include 10 sets to be returned to Kohala, Hawai'i, one set to O'ahu and eight sets of Hawai'i remains whose exact origin is not known. In 1990, the first repatriation of Native Hawaiian remains from the Smithsonian lnstitution brought. home individuals from O'ahu, Maui, Lana'i, Moloka'i, and Hawai'i. Return of Kaua'i remains was deferred at that time to allow the Kaua'i 'ohana time to prepare a reburial site. Repatriation of Native Hawaiian remains from federal museums is supported by the Native American Museums Act and other congressional legislation whieh provides for return of remains from any curational facility receiving federal funds at the request of Native Amenean and Native Hawaiian groups.