Posted on: Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Burial group files claim to Moloka'i artifacts

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

A burials organization has lodged a formal complaint against the Bishop Museum concerning three Moloka'i burial objects, charging that the museum's failure to transfer their ownership to Native Hawaiians violates federal law.

The group, Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i Nei, released a copy of the letter, and group member Edward Halealoha Ayau said it will be mailed tomorrow to National Park Service officials.

William Brown, Bishop Museum president, said in a written statement that museum officials are reviewing the issue to determine whether the museum has "right of possession" to the items and will issue its findings in two weeks. He also said another group, Na Lei Ali'i Kawananakoa, has stepped forward with a competing claim on the objects.

The letter asks the review committee established under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act to consider the dispute at its March meeting, set to take place in Hawai'i. It also requests that the meeting take place on Moloka'i, the island where the objects were buried originally.

Two of the objects, a small wood image from an unknown Molok'ai cave and a cowrie shell taken from the island's Mo'omomi sand dunes, had been listed in the Federal Register for "repatriation," or transfer of ownership from the museum to Native Hawaiians.

The third, a "niho palaoa," or rock oyster pendant, had not been listed for repatriation as the law required, according to the letter.

Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.