Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 2, 1 February 1988 — Increasing Public Awareness [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Increasing Public Awareness

Cemetery Directory Lists 9,000 lnscriptions

By Deborah Lee Ward, Assistant Editor Ka Wai Ola O OHA "Every tombstone has a tale to tell," says Nanette Napoleon Pumell, director of the Cemetery Research Project. Presently Hawaii's leading researcher of graveyard history, Mrs. Pumell is discovering a gold mine of fascinating information about people and the lives they led, through her study of historic cemeteries on Oahu. Last month Pumell exhibited 200 color photographs of island cemeteries at an exhibit titled "Graven Images" in the Amfac Plaza. All photographs were taken during her research. Though silent, these sentinels speak eloquently about the persons who onee lived in these islands. The photograph exhibition was sponsored by the Hawai'i Cultural Research Foundation, the University of Hawaii Committee for the Preservation and Study of Hawaiian Language, Art and Culture, the Hawaiian Historical Society, the Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate, Valley of the Temples Memorial Park, Diamond Head & Nuuanu Memorial Parks, and Hosoi Garden Mortuary. It was first shown in May 1987, at the Ala Moana Center exhibition area.

Through the Cemetery Research Project, Pumell is increasing public awareness of cemetery sites as important cultural, historical and genealogical resources. She emphasizes the need for proper maintenance, citing problems of neglect

she has found in some sites, such as wave erosion of seashore cemeteries. Pumell, a member of the Association of Gravestone Studies, has published articles in its journal and quarterly newsletter, and attended a recent national conference. In the last three years, Pumell has worked to identify and document old cemetery tombstones on O'ahu, with funding received from community organizations including the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, the Hawaii Allied Memorial Council, the State Historic Preservation Office, and the Committee for the Preservation of Hawaiian Language, Art and Culture. The interest in history that led Pumell to form the project heeame a monumental task and a labor of love for this one-woman research team, who presently works out of a home office in Kailua. Through her painstaking efforts, Pumell has just completed a l,500-page "Cemetery Directory" that includes nearly 9,000 individual tombstone inscriptions from undocumented cemeteries on O'ahu, indexed by name and location. She notes that of the 71 cemeteries on the island, 46 lacked documented records until she made her site inspection to record names, birthdate and date of death, and any other information provided on the tombstones, such as plaee of origin, profession, family status, hobbies, or religion. The Cemetery Directory is presently available for research at the Hawaiian Historical Society and the University of Hawaii Hamilton Library. More copies are now being made by the University of Hawaii Committee for the Preservation and Study of the Hawaiian Language, Art and Culture. Yet all this valuable research needs financial support to continue. To fund future activities, Pumell is now looking for grants to:

— expand the tombstone inscription recording project to the neighbor islands; — take the photograph exhibit to the neighbor islands. — write a book on Hawaii's historic cemeteries, including anecdotes, ethnic memorial traditions and tombstone styles and symbols. In order to make the valuable information from the Cemetery Research Project available to more persons, Pumell is looking for an underwriter to publish a copy of the directories for all state libraries and archives. She estimates 80 copies. Eaeh set of directories costs $250 to reproduce. Pumell is also available to give public slide-show lectures to talk about genealogy research, and the cultural, artistic and historical significance of cemeteries in Hawaii. For information about the Cemetery Research Project, eall 262-2723.

• i r? i' „» \4 \ * WKrm This is an example of "mbbing" through the use of tissue paper done by high school students who often have fun interpreting familiar religious symbols. This happens to be an image of "Gates of heaven" at O'ahu Cemetery. Arthur lrvine was Mrs. Pumell's great grandfather.

Cemetery Research Project Director Nanette Napoleon Pumell at last month's exhibition of "Graven lmages."

Symbolic foods, candles and incense decorate this family gravesite at1he Lin Yee Chung demetery in Manoa Valley. Decorating the graves is part of the Ching Ming Festival whieh takes plaee in April of eaeh year.

Japanese cemeteries bustle with activity eaeh summer during the O Bon season whieh is also known as the "Festival of the Tombs." Family members elean and decorate the graves with colorful lantems to "light" the way of the "spirits."