NAGPRA's Hawaiian Controversy
In 1990, The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was passed. This act provides mechanisms for museums to return human remains, funeral objects and sacred objects to the Native communities where they originated. Thousands of items and human remains have been returned and reburied over the past eighteen years. For the most part, this act has been seen as a success by Natives and archaeologists alike, but as with anything, it also has created some controversy and disfavor.
The most recent and still ongoing controversy is taking place in Hawaii, where the return of some cultural treasures is causing some deep divisions within Native Hawaiian communities. Because Hawaii has no distinct tribes, "deciding whom you give the objects back to has become a major problem", said Betty Kam, the vice president of cultural resources of Bishop Museum in Honolulu. In Hawaii, there are two organizations that have been named to whom stolen treasures may be returned: Hui Malama I Na Kapuna O Hawaii (Group Caring for Hawaiian Ancestors) and the State Office of Hawaiian Affairs; however, others could also qualify.
Hui Malama is an organization created to return the stolen skeleton and funeral objects to their traditional burial sites. In traditional Hawaiian culture, as in all indigenous cultures around the world, the remains of ancestors are treated with much respect, and the bones still have a deep connection with the energetic aspect of the ancestor who has entered the World of the Dead. Hui Malama has asked, received and re-interred thousands of bones without controversy, but recently it moved to one of Hawaii's most important collections, the Forbes Collection.
After initially refusing Hui Malama's request, the Bishop Museum vice president Elizabeth Tatar handed over the collection along with 200 other objects. Hui Malama returned the objects to the cave and booby-trapped them to prevent future theft, only to later have the Bishop Museum request them back, claiming that Tatar did not have the President's approval to give up these relics.
In the museum's attempt to recover the Forbes collection, it allied with 81 year old Princess Abigail Kawanakoa who some believe to be the heiress to the Hawaiian throne. Princess Kawanakoa is a leader in historic preservation. She referred to Hui Malama's actions as "a travesty that should never have happened." She insisted that the idols in the Forbes collection had never been used as funerary objects in Hawaii.
These controversies, perhaps more than anything, express an important need for indigenous communities all around the world to unify under their ancestral governments and educate themselves in their ancestral values. Considering that the traditional, indigenous paradigm, values and even family structure are completely different from the newer colonial ideas, how could modern governmental agencies decide who can rightfully receive items they stole? However, after seeing the beauty of the recent stolen (and refused to return) Benin exhibit at the Art institute of Chicago, one can greatly appreciate the effort.
According to indigenous time-keeping systems all around the world, including the original Sidereal Calendar, humanity is now going through a recovery era. For this recovery to happen, it will be important for those who value their ancestral heritage to re-educate themselves with the values, structures and spiritual systems of their ancestors. This way we can be united and prepared as our prayers of the last two millennia are answered. This way -- united under our ancestors-- we will no longer be working with the minds of the destroyers of their culture as we rebuild our societies. It is ancestral reverence which has given indigenous societies their power since the beginning of human civilization.