Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 11, 1 Nowemapa 1993 — Ancient kāʻai to be returned to Royal Mausoleum at Mauna ʻAla [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Ancient kāʻai to be returned to Royal Mausoleum at Mauna ʻAla

by Jeff Clark One of the special projects of OHA's Native Hawaiian Historic Preservation Council (NHHPC) has been to plan for the construction of a repository at Mauna 'Ala, the Royal Mausoleum in Nu'uanu, for the return of the kā'ai that have been in the custody of the Bishop Museum for the past 75 years. The ka'ai are sennit caskets believed to contain the remains of the Hawai'i island chiefs Llloa and Lonoikamakahiki. "As known 'aumakua, the spiritual and sacred dimension of the kā'ai is beyond what has been expressly known in any other repatriation," OHA land officer Linda Delaney wrote in the NHHPC's 1991 report to the Legislature. In 1991 the state Legislature provided $200,000 in the governor's budget to be matched by $200,000 in OHA trust funds to construct a repository for the two ka'ai. The project is being spearheaded by the Council's Special Committee on the Design and

Constmction of a Repository at Mauna 'Ala for the Repatriation of Nā Ka'ai Kahiko. The eommittee includes members of the NHHPC as well as representatives of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, Bishop Museum, and the Daughters and Sons of Hawaiian Warriors. The committee decided that the repository should be located mauka of the ehapel, 'ewa of the curator's cottage and in the \icinity of the rock outcropping. Planning, design and construction will take about a year and a half. Lydia Namahana Maioho, resident curator of Mauna 'Ala, said

the ka'ai should be returned so that they may be "laid to rest with the rest of the ali'i." Although some members of the Hawaiian community wish to have the ka'ai returned to Waipi'o on the island of Hawai'i, "My feeling is that Mauna 'Ala would be the safest plaee for them," she said, noting that Mauna 'Ala is curated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and that the mausoleum has never suffered vandalism or desecration.

Delaney says that when Queen Ka'ahumanu dismantled the kapu and ordered that all the heiau be destroyed, she sent word that the kā'ai should be preserved. They had been originally housed in a hale poki, or bone house, at either Pu'uhonua o Hōnaunau's Hale-o-Keawe or Waipi'o's Hale-o-Līloa, but following Ka'ahumanu's order were hidden in a Waipi'o cave. They were later brought to Pohukaina, the burial mound adjacent 'Iolani Palaee, where 28

other ali'i were kept. When the other sets of remains were transferred to Mauna 'Ala, Princess Ruth kept the two ka'ai at her house (the present site of Central Intermediate School). They were then transferred to Bishop Museum. A memorandum of understanding has been drafted for signing by representatives of signatories to the 1918 agreement to transfer the ka'ai from Mauna 'Ala to the museum. Those signatories were Territorial Governor Lucius E. Pinkham, Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana'ole, and trustees of the Estate of H.M. Lili'uokalani, and their respective representatives sit on the committee as non-voting members.

Mauna 'Ala