#iwi kupuna

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs hosts a Mea ʻAi & Manaʻo community followup meeting on Maui from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 11 at the University of Hawaiʻi Maui College, Pilina Event Center.

The Hawaiʻi Department of Health issued a Stop Work Order for the Individual Wastewater System project at 4400 Oneone Road, which uncovered multiple human burials . This decision comes after persistent advocacy from the local community, cultural descendants, and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to protect iwi kūpuna (ancestral remains) and ensure the integrity of cultural and environmental resources in the area.

US Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, secured $394 million in new congressional directed spending, also known as earmarks, in the first half of this year’s government funding bill. Additional earmark funding for Hawai‘i is expected to be included the second half of the funding deal which is set to be announced on March 22.

When explaining the significance of the name “Waiahiokole,” Keʻeaumoku Kapu, CEO of Aha Moku said “kole” means raw, and “waiahi” talks about the turbulence during the time of the shark birthing process. In addition to the literal translation, Kapu said scholars that he reached out to told him it was also named after a prominent chief that lived in the area. Dr. Janet Six, principal archaeologist for the County of Maui said, that while “Puamana definitely is a Hawaiian word–it just is one that was assigned to a large plantation house in the 1920s.” She explained that the area is historically a large grave site.

The human remains of three Native Hawaiians that were taken from Waikīkī on Oʻahu in 1860 and ended up in the Canterbury Museum in New Zealand have been repatriated to Hawaiʻi.

During a repatriation ceremony, the National Museums Northern Ireland returned ancestral Hawaiian human remains and sacred artifacts, which had been part of the museum’s World Cultures Collection. 

This is the largest collection of iwi kūpuna the Hawaiian delegation is receiving on its five-stop journey in Germany and Austria. The final repatriation ceremony will be held on February 14 at the Vienna Natural History Museum. The delegation will return home to Hawaiʻi on February 15. Arrangments have been made with the appropriate parties to rebury the iwi kūpuna on their islands of origin, so they may finally return to their moe loa (eternal sleep).

This week, a delegation representing the Office of Hawaiian Affairs will repatriate 58 ancestral remains from four institutions in Germany and one in Austria.

Maui County has closed on a $10.5 million purchase with A&B Properties of approximately 500 acres known as Waiʻale South and Waiʻale North, according to an announcement by Mayor Michael Victorino today.

A Kēōkea homesteader was project manager of a $58,395 grant program funded by the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Theresa Hiʻilei Martinson will assume her duties Sept. 1 for the OHA-funded Project MAHIʻAI, an Amazon-style distribution system for native-grown products.

Hawaiʻi Land Trust received $50,000 to support iwi kūpuna protection at Hawaiʻi Land Trust’s 277-acre Waihe‘e Coastal Dunes & Wetlands Refuge on Maui.

Five Maui women who were positioned in a trench at a West Maui construction site, in protection of ancestral burials on Tuesday, were placed under citizen’s arrest for allegations involving second degree criminal trespass.

A litigant in the case, Jennifer Noelani Ahia said, “Furthermore the Maui, Lana’i Island Burial Council has identified Maui Lani Phase 6 Increment 4 as a known burial area, a pāʻilina. Our iwi have the right to be at peace and as descendants, who inherit their collective mana, we have the right to protect our iwi and the ʻāina where they rest.”

Mālama Kakaniula – a hui dedicated towards protecting Hawaiian iwi – will be able to make their case in a contested court hearing, according to their attorney.

The proposed resolution urges timely review and ongoing oversight of archeological inventory surveys, archeological monitoring plans, and archeological preservation plans

Mālama Kakanilua and members Clare H. Apana and Kaniloa Kamaunu filed suit against Maui Lani Partners’ sand mining operations with Maui’s Environmental Court…

Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa today said he plans to ask the County Council to declare a moratorium on the export of sand off-island.

An educational event on the status of native burials, particularly within the Maui Lani development, will take place this evening at Owa—the Maui Lani Shopping Center area. The Ua Noho Au Kupa Hoʻolauleʻa, honoring iwi kupuna (ancestors), is hosted by the group Hui Pono Ike Kanawai from 6 p.m. to midnight on Friday, April 24, 2015.

Members of the native Hawaiian research group, Hui Pono Ike Kanawai, began a 12-hour vigil at the site of the proposed Maui Lani Shopping Center in Central Maui on Sunday night.

“We have a sacred duty to make sure that these areas where their bones are resting, are treated with the utmost sense of respect and reverence.”