Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 22, Number 1, 1 Ianuali 2005 — Hawaiians offer divergent views at Senate hearing on burial law [ARTICLE]

Hawaiians offer divergent views at Senate hearing on burial law

Committee seeks input, but lnouye says changes to NAGPRA unlikely to be passed anytime soon By Sterling Kini Wong At a hearing held by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs at the UH Mānoa campus on Dec. 8, a number of Native Hawaiians who testified requested that the federal law governing the protection of native burial items be amended to reduce the perception of favoritism and to increase the importance of the role of families in repatriation disputes. However, Sen. Daniel Inouye, outgoing vice-chair-man of the senate committee and a coauthor of the federal burial law, told the Honolulu Advertiser that changes to the act would be difficult to pass in Congress. The hearing was meant to gather puhlie input regarding the definition of a Native Hawaiian organization under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The 1990 law sets forth the repatriation process for native remains and cultural objects, many of whieh were removed over the years from burial sites by archaeologists and subsequently transferred to museums. At the hearing, La'akea Suganuma, a spokesman for one group of claimants, said that the law works for

federally recognized tribes who have a governing body authorized to speak on behalf of the tribe. However, he said, no such body exists in Hawai'i, and therefore ownership of burial items in many cases is transferred to the two organizations whose names are mentioned in the law without regard for the Hawaiian community as a whole. "Those organizations' names must be removed to eliminate any appearance of favoritism," he said. OHA and Hui Mālama I Nā Kūpuna O Hawai'i Nei are the two groups specifically mentioned as Native Hawaiian organizations in the law. Hui Mālama spokesman Eddie Halealoha Ayau, who testified before Suganuma, said that Native Hawaiian organizations should demonstrate cultural expertise in burials and have leadership that is made up of mostly Native Hawaiians. OHA Deputy Administrator Ron Mun, speaking on behalf of the agency at the hearing, said that the board has not yet taken any formal position on proposed changes to NAGPRA. He did say, however, that state burial law has a more relaxed standard for the recognition of claimants and that more emphasis is on the individual and family claimant, rather than a Native Hawaiian organization. "[This] is in recognition of the important role the family, or 'ohana, maintains in the disposition and treatment of the deceased," Mun said. ■