By Yasmin Anwar
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hawaiians and environmentalists are holding an all-night vigil in south Kona starting today at noon to protest the treatment of ancestral bones inadvertently unearthed during the development of a luxury residential community and golf course in Kealakekua.
Jim Medeiros, a south Kona farmer and spokesman for the Keopuka ‘Ohana which claims lineal and cultural links to the area’s iwi or ancestral bones, says members of his group witnessed archaeologists wrap some of the remains in butcher paper before reburying them.
"It’s an insult to our spirituality," Medeiros said. "This vigil is our way of saying sorry to our kupuna."
He says the Valentine’s Day vigil will be held near a rented house where the bones have been stored on Mamalahoa Highway adjoining Konawaena Elementary School.
Oceanside 1250 and Japan Airlines are developing a 36-hole golf course and 730 residential lots on more than 1,500 acres in south Kona, two miles north of Kealakekua Bay.
Dubbed Hokuli‘a, the project is considered the biggest luxury subdivision on the Big Island, and has come under fire by the area’s environmentalists and Native Hawaiians.
In a prepared statement, Rick Humphries, general manager of the Hokuli‘a project, said the iwi have been "treated with great reverence."
He said as soon as the ancestral remains were found, his staff and consulting archaeologists notified the state Historic Preservation Division’s burial program in compliance with state and federal laws.
"It is our intent to return these sacred remains to the land from where they came from, based on appropriate cultural practices," Humphries said.
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