Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 15, Number 3, 1 March 1998 — Ke kiʻi ʻana mai i ke kiʻi lāʻau [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Ke kiʻi ʻana mai i ke kiʻi lāʻau

KI'I, THE verb, is to fetch, get, send for, or summon. And so, the ki'i lā'au long held in Rhode īsland, has fetched our attention. Regardless of the dispute, the threatened litigation, the recent mediation and the planned repatriation, all involving the ki'i lā'au, it is doing its job of fetching. It has fetched our attention and summoned us to meetings at home and across the North American continent to advocate for its retum to Hawai'i nei. It has fetched our attention and summoned us to focus upon and murmur our mo'okū'auhau at home with only ourselves and our kūpuna present. We have recited our mo'okū'auhau in distant Rhode Island in the presence

of eaeh other and the fetcher itself. The ki'i lā'au in dispute is an object of traditional, religious practice. Today,whether at home or abroad, we are conducting ourselves according to the guidanee of our mentors, our teacher:

and our kūpuna. This practice is also in keeping with the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). In particular the ki'i and our treatment of it conform to the definition of "sacred objects," whieh means specific ceremonial objects needed "by traditional Native Ameiiean religious leaders for the practice of traditional Native Ameiiean religions by their present day adherents." That there may be eontemporary po'e Hawai'i who are not adherents of traditional religion is not being questioned. That the particulars of any practice are dynamic and subject to change should not be questioned. That Hui Mālama i nā Kūpuna o Hawai'i Nei and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs are specifically named in the NAGPRA is clear. And so on Feb. 9, Edward Halealoha Ayau, Linda 5 Kawai'ono Delaney and I began

travel from Hawai'i to Providence, Rhode Island for a mediation conference scheduled for Feb. 12 between the Hawaiian groups and the City of Providence, presided by Magistrate Halopin. On Feb. 1 1 we had the opportunity to meet and devoutly focus upon the next day's session, in the company of the ki'i lā'au. And so the ritual oli and pule were conducted — e mau a mau. Thus fortified and focused in spirit, we spent the afternoon further preparing our legal position with our attomeys Jack Trope and Mark Morse. Prepared as we were, we were pleased that the meeting before the magistrate was brief and that willingness to work out a reasonable settlement was mutual. Between the magistrate's office and our negotiating table we had an unexpected opportunity to meet with both Mayor Cianci of

Providence and Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas of the Rhode Island Narragansett Indian tribe. The Sachem gifted us with his commitment to advocate for the retum of the ki'i lā'au to Hawai'i nei. Yet another summoned to share in the work before us. We negotiated into the early evening, broke for the night and resumed our efforts the next moming. We worked through the day to arrive at the successful draft of the settlement now subject to all parties' approval. As we walked the city block from the negotiation site to report our progress to Mayor Cianci, a spectacular sunset, replete with high red clouds, spread above us. Reveling in the splendor, one of our East Coast companions remarked on the unusual sky, then, with a sidelong glance, mused that perhaps it was usual for us. I assured him that it sometimes was. ■

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