Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 6, 1 June 1986 — Families Maintain Backyard Cemeteries [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Families Maintain Backyard Cemeteries

By Nanette Napoleon Pumell Director, Cemetery Research Project When we think about cemeteries in our state today, we envision one of those large and well-groomed memorial parks on Oahu such as Diamond Head Memorial Park, National Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, Hawaiian Memorial Park or Valley of the Temples whieh are indeed dominant landmarks in the areas where they are located. Many older Hawaiians, however, ean remember a time before the days of these memorial parks (in the l%0's) when most families either buried their loved ones in a small neighborhood cemetery or in their own backyards. Pauoa Hawaiian Cemetery is one of those neighborhood sites whieh readily comes to mind. Such "backyard" type cemeteries were, in fact, the most eommon of burial sites found on the island outside Honolulu where crowded conditions demanded burials in formal eemetery locations. This practice continued until 1%7 when the first laws were written prohibiting home burials because of health hazards.

Most of these home cemeteries have since been removed or have been destroyed by large development projects. A few remain, however, and are maintained hy third or fourth generation family members who oftentimes do not even know all the names of the people buried in a site. But they do the best they ean to preserve what has been passed on to them. Two of these are the Watson family plot in Keapuka, Kaneohe, and the Mauliola/Kamanu family cemetery in Keolu Hills, Kailua. The Watson site is adjacent to the family home currently owned by Anita Yanagida, great-granddaughter of John D. Watson who eame from England and settled in the islands around 1825. He married 01ivia Kahawalepo and together they had 12 children. One of them was Roland Watson, Anita's grandfather, who is one of approximately 18 descendants believed to be buried at the Watson site. Daniel Yanagida, Anita's son, also lives on the property with his wife, Teresa, and their two daughters. He has taken on the responsibility of maintaining and preserving what remains of this family legacy despite pressure to sell this prime land to interested developers. The Mauliola/Kamanu cemetery might have been destroyed by the development of a new housing project were it not for the preservation efforts of the development company — Lone Star Hawaii Properties ine. Prior to the start of construction work last summer, the

site was accessible only via a one-mile hiking trail through undeveloped land facing Kalanianaole Highway. Lone Star has indicated they will build a boundary fence or wall to further protect the site. Anyone wishing to share information about other family cemetery sites is encouraged to eall the writer at 262-2723. The cemetery project is partially funded by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

This is the Watson famiiy cemetery at Keapuka in Kaneohe.