Re: Kawaiahao Church
Two recent articles by Joan Conrow in the Honolulu Weekly paint a distorted picture of events that have taken place at Kawaiahao Church. In addition to factual errors in both articles, the editorial slant and the prominence given to claims made by those who oppose the church’s new facility do a disservice to the church, its congregation and its mission.
The church’s side of the story is only briefly shoe-horned in near the end of each article. To begin, there is no issue, as the first article claims, about whether the Oahu Island Burial Council or state agencies have authority over any iwi discovered. The circuit court and the attorney general both agreed that the State Historic Preservation Division (SHPD) is the authority, not the burial council. SHPD sets the conditions under which the project will proceed.
Neither is there any question about the nature of burials. In the recent decision by the Circuit Court, the judge reaffirmed that the burials that have been discovered at Kawaiahao cemetery are consistent with Christian burials and not consistent with ancient pre-contact native Hawaiian burial practices. You wouldn’t realize it from reading Ms. Conrow’s articles, but no marked burials have been disturbed during any excavation.
While some iwi were found while excavating for a column footing in one corner of the building, most were discovered during trenching for a utility line, under a roadway and a parking lot in use for more than 60 years.
The members of Kawaiahao Church want the readers of Honolulu Weekly to know we are saddened by the unintentional discovery of the burials. But we honor them and the others that are buried within our cemetery by continuing the church’s mission in which they believed. Our new facility is critical to that mission. That is why we are building it.
Juliette Galuteria
Honolulu
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