[MSN] Hawaii. For museum or the cave? That's the central issue of the federal court case involving 83 sets of cultural objects from the Forbes Cave on the Big Island.

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

May 21, 2006 
For museum or the cave? 

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Staff Writer
   
Items of antiquity like this image were taken from a Kawaihae cave in the
early 1900s. Claimants of the objects have gone to court.
Photo:
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060521/NEWS23
/605210350/1173/NEWS

  
Hidden away to be seen by future generations or burial objects that should
never have been disturbed?

That's the central issue of the federal court case involving 83 sets of
cultural objects from the Forbes Cave on the Big Island.

Abigail Kawananakoa, who for years has avoided the public spotlight,
recently spoke to The Advertiser about why her group, Na Lei Alii
Kawananakoa, and the Royal Hawaiian Academy of Traditional Arts are suing
for the return of the objects to Bishop Museum. The two groups are among 14
organizations that filed as claimants under the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act to have a say in the fate of the items.

The items were "loaned" by the museum to Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i
Nei, a group dedicated to repatriating burial remains and also one of the
claimants. In 2000, Hui Malama placed the items next to iwi, or bones, in
Forbes Cave. The museum has asked to have the items returned. But Hui Malama
officials have maintained that they consider the items repatriated and the
matter closed, even refusing a federal court order to return them.

Kawananakoa and her supporters believe at least seven to nine of the objects
were hidden there nearly two centuries ago when, following Kamehameha's
death in 1819, his successors abolished the kapu system and ordered all
symbols of the old Hawaiian religions destroyed.

"Our purpose is to preserve and to bring back the things that were taken
illegally," Kawananakoa said.

The argument flies in the face of the beliefs of Hui Malama and its
supporters, who believe the objects were placed in the Forbes Cave and
others nearby as "moepu," objects buried with the dead. They believe the
theft occurred when David Forbes and two other Western explorers discovered
the objects in 1905 and sold them to the museum.

THE KAMEHAMEHA LINK

Former Bishop Museum anthropologist Roger Rose, who is employed by
Kawananakoa's foundation, said at least seven of the items belonged to
ali'i. High-ranking chiefs, Rose said, were buried in secrecy because their
remains would be coveted by their enemies. As a result, he said, ali'i were
not buried with possessions that could identify them.

Rose believes it's "highly probable" that some of the items, at one time,
belonged to Kamehameha the Great. He pointed to the Kiha-wahine, the
human-like wooden figure that is arguably the one object that has come to
symbolize the Forbes Collection.

To solidify his legitimacy to rule the islands, Kamehameha married
Keopuolani, the highest-ranking woman on Maui in the early 1800s, Rose said.
The union led to two boys who would succeed him as king.

He took back to his home island of Hawai'i the symbols of the most powerful
gods of Maui chiefs. Kiha-wahine, Rose said, is one of them. "He took over
the women, the chief sacred sites, and the sacred deities of the Maui rulers
as his own to establish his own credibility," Rose said.

Rose also pointed out the proximity of the Forbes Cave to Pu'ukohola,
Kamehameha's personal heiau, as well as other royal sites. "That would
explain why these very important items came from caves in Kawaihae, the area
from which Kamehameha began his conquest," he said.

Carved images were rarely found in burial caves, or any caves, he said.
"They were found in swamps, in old irrigation canals that had been filled
in, buried in the ground, in cavities that have been created to hide them
away," he said. "They have been found in caves, but not with burials."

Hui Malama disagrees with Rose's conclusion, citing information by William
T. Brigham, Bishop Museum's director in the early 1900s. "The two ki'i
'aumakua with inlaid hair were placed immediately before the set of (18) iwi
kupuna," said a statement issued by Hui Malama. "The two ki'i akua with the
elaborate headdresses were placed immediately beside these 18 individuals."

Near the entrance was a gourd containing an infant's skeleton, Hui Malama
said. "Hence, the four ki'i were literally situated between two burial
features representing a total of 19 individuals, all within a single chamber
of the cave."

The statement says: "Several lines of evidence indicate that the ki'i in
'Forbes Cave' are directly associated with the burials there and were not
coincidentally placed in the burial caves for a purpose unrelated to the
individuals interred there."

Hui Malama cited the 19th-century writings of Samuel Kamakau and the Rev.
William Ellis, who spoke of precious objects accompanying burials.

'NOT GRAVE GOODS'

Scholars outside the lawsuit also disagree sharply on whether the objects
were buried with the human remains.

Artist and historian Herb Kawainui Kane also cited written reports by
Brigham, the former museum director. Kane said Brigham learned of the old
ways from Kalakaua, who was counseled by elders who once were part of
Kamehameha's court.

"Brigham said by no means were the bones of chiefs interred along with any
of the objects that could identify them," Kane said. "Brigham's
interpretation of this was that these were not grave goods. ... They did not
have grave goods during the pre-contact times."

Many Hawaiians today, he said, "have succumbed to the idea of (the remains
of) ancient ali'i ... laid out in royal splendor surrounded by all the
wealth of their time similar to the pharaohs of Egypt. Just the opposite is
the case."

Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, a professor at the Center for Hawaiian Studies at
the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, said there is no evidence that the idols
belonged to Kamehameha.

"In fact, the evidence is quite to the contrary," she said. "We did not see
those kinds of carvings described or drawn by any of (Capt. James) Cook's
people that knew Kamehameha, or Ka'ahumanu or people of that time."

She added: "What is so interesting about these ancestral treasures ... is
that they are so different. Therefore, I am even more convinced that they
were not placed there after Ka'ahumanu started burning images. I think they
belonged to the people who are buried there."

KAWANANAKOA'S VIEW

Kawananakoa, the Campbell Estate heiress who recently turned 80, has until
recently declined comment on the issue. She maintained a low profile since a
fallout with other leaders of Friends of 'Iolani Palace that led to her
departure from the group. Supporters point out, however, that she has
continued her Hawaiianarelated charitable activities, including a recent
contribution of $110,000 to the palace when the Friends requested it.

After participating in a four-month attempt at mediating the Forbes dispute,
Kawananakoa expressed disappointment and called the futile effort "a farce."

U.S. District Judge David Ezra has called for proceeding with a court order
to examine the safety of the cave in anticipation of opening it up to
retrieve the items. The timeline was sealed to deter looters, Ezra said.

The descendant of Hawaiian royalty, Kawananakoa said she was devastated by
the theft of two ka'ai, burial baskets believed to contain the remains of
Hawaiian chiefs, from the museum in 1994.

In 2002, she, Hawaiian genealogy expert Edith McKenzie and other advisers
went to Bishop Museum to examine the safety of other priceless Hawaiian
artifacts stored there, Kawananakoa said.

The group concluded that the ka'ai theft was only part of a larger threat to
the preservation of cultural treasures, she said. In 2004, after further
research and consultation with experts, she filed to be a claimant in the
Forbes case.

Kawananakoa, whose grandmother was Princess Abigail Kawananakoa and whose
mother founded the Friends of 'Iolani Palace, said she was adopted by her
grandmother and grew up learning to appreciate Hawaiian culture and to
understand the importance of preserving physical links to the past. "I've
had it instilled in me since I was born that this is Hawaiian history. I've
been around these things," she said.

Kame'eleihiwa dismissed that explanation. "If she were a true ali'i, what
she'd want to do is make sure that ... all of these ancestral treasures
would stay with the ancestors," she said.

She said Hui Malama did what was proper, pointing out that it has taken
possession of more than 5,900 ancestral Hawaiians and reburied more than
2,900 sets of remains in or near their original burial sites.

There is also disagreement over the legality and intent of the Forbes
expedition in taking the items.

The Kawananakoa side believes no laws were enacted until after 1905 that
barred the taking of cultural items from caves.

Kawananakoa and Rose said they believe that the Forbes expedition did not
set out for financial gain but rather to help preserve a culture at a time
when Hawaiians were seeing a dramatic drop in their population.

"This was a period when it was generally thought that because of what
happened to the Hawaiian population in the past, they were headed towards
extinction, that there would be no Hawaiians left," Rose said. "People did
whatever they could to preserve what they could at the time."

Hui Malama and its supporters insist that grave robbing was committed by the
three men in coordination with the museum.

In its prepared statement, Hui Malama pointed out that while negotiating the
sale of the items, Brigham advised Forbes to "keep the matter quiet for
there are severe laws here concerning burial caves."

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang at honoluluadvertiser.com.

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