[CPProt.net] Hawaii: Groups Battle Over Buried Artifacts

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Groups Battle Over Buried Artifacts
Jim Mendoza - jmendoza at kgmb9.com 


For years, dozens of Hawaiian ancestral items have been hidden from view,
buried in a Big Island cave by Hui Malama, a group that repatriates Hawaiian
remains. 

"The cave is safe, the items are safe," said Edward Halealoha Ayau, the
Hui's executive director.

On Tuesday, lawyers for Hui Malama will appeal a judge's order to retrieve
the artifacts.  Two other Hawaiian groups oppose Hui Malama.  They want the
cave reopened and the artifacts returned. 

"The sooner that we recover them and check on them, the better off they'll
be," said Laakea Suganuma of the Royal Hawaiian Academy of Traditional Arts.

Hui Malama said unsealing the cave is dangerous.  Opponents wonder if that
argument is a smokescreen and if all 83 artifacts were put into the cave to
begin with. 

"We've appealed several times to have the cave opened, nothing removed, but
let's just ensure the safety and make sure they're there and they've
absolutely refused," Suganuma said.

"They all were there, the moepu and the iwi were all in the cave, placed
there by our ancestors and they're there now," Ayau said.

The Bishop Museum loaned the items to Hui Malama, who reburied them.  Now
the war of words is coming to a head. 

"They're basically ordering the theft, the taking of possessions of these
ancestors, not us. The items don't belong to us," Ayau said.

"These things need to be checked on and removed and put into an area where
everybody can view them fairly," Suganuma said. 

After Tuesday's hearing before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals,
everyone should have a better idea if the artifacts will ever see the light
of day again.

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