Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 24, Number 9, 1 Kepakemapa 2007 — Invented burial practices [ARTICLE]

Invented burial practices

Hui Mālama has indeed become a fundamentalist organization that forces or coerces others to conform to their beliefs. They have skillfully used the federal NAGPRA law to their own advantage, acquiring over a million dollars in grants, yet they have balked completely when this same law ran against them. I was amazed last year to read Pua Kanahele's admission that she and her late husband made up the burial protocols Hui Mālama has so widely touted. Even more "protocol" has been added to the inventions. I hope that other Hawaiians will now speak out and reaffirm their own family practices. Hui Mālama did defile Forbes Cave. I saw this myself. Eddie

Ayau's public elaim that no one would ever find it after they sealed the cave was a gross falsehood, and anyone knowledgeable about stonework would have seen their complete alteration of the cave face, wliieh was made, no doubt, for easy access into the cave. Its entrance was previously small and very hard to find. Their interpretation of moepū is adjusted to fit their cause. Hui Mālama has led a whole new set of Hawaiians to believe that their ancestors commonly placed grave goods with burials, like those of Egypt or Peru. This is quite untrue. Grave goods of any extent were previously very uneommon in Hawai'i, and this changed after Christian concepts to do this eame into use. My eoneein stems not only from the need to have an accurate histoiy, but also because of my descent from the Mahi family through my Kawaihae grandfather. Mehin Lonokaiolohia Kalahiki, 5r. Kāneohe, O'ahu