Museum seeks court action on reburial of iwi
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
Bishop Museum yesterday asked the Circuit Court to help at least 22 Hawaiian families and organizations come to an agreement on where to rebury the remains of as many as 3,000 Hawaiians who lived and died in Windward O'ahu during the past 500 years.
The remains and related items, known as the Mokapu Collection because many of them were found on Marine Corps Base Hawai'i on the Mokapu peninsula, have been discovered and excavated at various times during the past century, the museum said in papers filed in court.
They had been turned over to the Bishop Museum over the years after being discovered during construction of the Marine base in the 1930s, military activity during World War II, and other development of the base in the 1950s, according to Linda Delaney, a Hawaiian community leader who has been working on the reinterment issue.
Delaney last night said that several 'ohana have an agreement and a promise from the Marine Corps that the iwi, or bones, could be reinterred back at Mokapu.
The families sought and won recognition of their rights to the remains under the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act, but agreed in 1999 to allow the remains to stay "on loan" in Bishop Museum's care while working out details of reinterment, Delaney said.
She said the return of the remains to what amounted to an old community cemetery on the Mokapu peninsula was a difficult matter for both families and the Marine Corps to deal with over the years, but that the families had recently advised the Corps that they had agreed on a reinterment site on the base.
She said the families want to ask the Corps also to provide protected space where the remains could be kept during the reinterment process.
In its filing in court, the museum said yesterday that the loan agreement expired in January 2001, and had been orally extended since, but that the museum had repeatedly asked the families to arrange to remove the remains from the museum by the end of last year.
The museum said in the filing that it didn't want the responsibility of determining to which groups or families the remains belonged, but would be willing to transfer them to any entity named by the court.
The court could order the remains moved to the Marine base "at a location and on terms and conditions agreeable to the United States Government," the suit said.
Delaney said last night that she hoped that the families would be given time to complete their work before the remains are moved again.
"We owe that to the kupuna, and we look to meeting with the Marines again," she said. "Given the desecration that has occurred, all parties have a commitment to have the iwi reburied," she said.
The suit names several organizations which may have an interest in the repatriation of Hawaiian remains, including the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the O'ahu Island Burial Council, and Ka Lahui Hawai'i.
Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.
