Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 39, Number 4, 1 ʻApelila 2022 — Protecting Wailupe Iwi Kūpuna [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Protecting Wailupe Iwi Kūpuna

Community members eeme out for o peaceful sit in and tolk story with Chris Cromer on Sundoy, Feb. 20, 2022, to leorn obout tbe bistory of Woilupe ond tbe importont buriols tbere. Vigils bove been beld ot the end of Kio'i Ploee (the closest occess point to the buriol coves ond contested development oreo) by community members for more tbon o month. - Photo: Healani Sonoda-Pale

By Chris Cramer and Healani Sonoda-Pale Wiliwilinui Ridge in Wailupe on the island of O'ahu is one of the island's most signifieant Hawaiian burial sites. Wailupe was a pu'uhonua (plaee of refuge) during the time of King Kamehameha I. The burial eaves found on this ridge safeguarded Hawaiian iwi kūpuna and their extraordinary moepū (funerary objeets) sueh as eanoes, a feather eape and a eannon ball, whieh mark the signifieanee of these burials. Sinee 1926, there have been numerous arehaeologieal investigations of Wailupe, so the existenee of the burial eaves has been well documented over the decades. In 2006, loeal entrepreneurs Kent and Lori Untermann, property owners on Wiliwilinui Ridge, set out to build a townhouse development on their property. A routine puhlie hearing for the proposed development was held, and longtime community members from the area testified passionately about the iwi kūpuna buried on the proposed development site. After the hearing, the State Historic Preservation Division (SHPD) wrote to the Department of Permitting and Planning (DPP) requesting that no permit be issued for the site until an archaeological inventory study could be

conducted. DPP denied the owners' 2006 development permit applications. Despite their awareness of the burial caves and the community's concerns, 10 years later the Untermanns again applied for - and this time received - grading and building permits from DPP for the same property. An Oct. 16, 2018, article by Blaise Lovell in Civil Beat ("City Mistakenly OK'd Permit for Site with Native Hawaiian Remains ") reported that a DPP employee apparently misfiled the 2006 letter from SHPD instructing DPP that no development permits should be issued for the property. Moreover, the Wailupe and Aina Haina communities were unaware that the permits had been approved - they found out when they saw three excavators working eoncurrently to level the cliffside. After vocal community opposition, the Untermanns stopped the grading. However, by then the cliffside was badly damaged and truckloads of soil had been carted away. It remains that way today. That same year the Wailupe 'Ohana Council brought to Kent Untermann's attention that an open burial cave containing iwi, teeth, and other artifacts existed just a few feet from a dirt road on his property. A burial plan to "preserve in plaee" was drafted and

approved by the O'ahu Burial Council and SHPD with the stipulation that the burial cave was to be sealed and a 25-foot protective buffer installed around it; a proper buffer has yet to be installed. For several years there was no new activity - until the morning of Feb. 12, 2022, when the kūpuna's fragile peaee was shattered by the sounds of an excavator operating near the sealed burial cave. A handful of kia'i (protectors) quickly responded, converging at the Untermanns' property and informing the workers that they were digging in a known burial area. Work was immediately halted, and when law enforcement arrived the contractor showed the poliee the now-expired 2016 building permit. Although the work was stopped and the immediate danger to the iwi mitigated, neither the landowner nor the contractor were fined or held accountable for excavating the area without a oermit or for the desecration of a known burial site.

Since then, the iumbcr of kia'i iolding space and :onducting daily :hecks of the site ias grown. Aft er nunerous requests, the Jntermanns recenty allowed cultural iescendants access :o the burial cave, as required by the burial treatment plan. Two ceremonies were conducted by the grieving descendants to reassure their kūpuna. 1

Honolulu Councilman Tommy Waters has proactively addressed the laek of coordination between the DPP and the SHPD. On February 24 he introduced and helped pass Resolution 22-36 whieh sparked a long overdue publie discussion between DPP and SHPD representatives about how they ean work together more effectively to protect sacred cultural sites. Unfortunately, the struggle to protect the iwi kūpuna of Wailupe is not over. In late February the Untermanns submitted yet another grading permit application. Because this issue has been ongoing since 2006, ignorance of the burial sites on Wiliwilinui Ridge is no longer an excuse for this willful desecration. However, until there are actual consequences imposed for uncovering and destroying Hawaiian burial sites, the threat of desecration continues and kia'i must remain vigilant. Ola nā iwi! The bones live. ■ Chris Cramer is a historian with the Wailupe 'Ohana Council and steward of Kānewai and Kalauhaihai fishponds. Healani Sonoda-Pale is a citizen ofKa Lāhui Hawai'i and a kia'i ofthe Wailupe iwi kūpuna.

Kiū'i of the Wailupe iwi kūpuna stand ot the i end of Kio'i Plaee in Wailupe. In the haek- '< ground, construction vehides are visible. (L-R) Chris Cramer, Mialisa Otis, Al Keaka 1 Medeiros, Healani Sonoda-Pūle, Jimmy Auld- 1 Kekino, and Hugh ūonlon. - Photo: Greg Noir <