Posted at 4:56 p.m., Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Additional 'iwi unearthed at Kaka'ako construction site
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Staff Writer
That's in addition to 11 sets of 'iwi for which the company has already received the go-ahead to relocate by the O'ahu Island Burial Council.
Dwight Yoshimura, General Growth Properties' senior vice president, confirmed the findings to The Advertiser today.
Because the 36 new sets are being classified as "inadvertent" burial finds, the State Historic Preservation Division has final say on the future of the 'iwi. The agency's director, Melanie Chinen, has already given the OK for three of them to be reinterred with the original 11 and is expected to now make a determination on the remaining 33 sets.
That has cultural descendants of the area upset because they believe the arbiter of what should happen to the 'iwi should be the burial council, not Chinen.
The descendants, led by Paulette Kaleikini of the Keawemahi family and Edward Halealoha Ayau of Hui Malama I Na Kupuna 'o Hawai'i Nei, said they will hold a press conference at the construction site in front of Auahi Street tomorrow to raise their concerns with the growing number of burial finds.
