Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 14, Number 1, 1 January 1997 — Return of klʻl lāʻau in question pending federal suit [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Return of klʻl lāʻau in question pending federal suit

While Herb Kawainui Kane's position seems to support the federal suit filed by the City of Providence, Rhode Island, other Hawaiian cultural experts have asserted that the 15-ineh high wooden ki'i was a sacred object of signifkant patrimonial interest to Hawaiians. Expert testimony by Pualani Kanaka'ole Kanahele and Richard Paglinawan on Hawaiian sacred objects under the kapu system indicates they believe the ki'i aumakua is a ritually deified ancestor called on to support the spears of an ali'i kaua (warrior chief.) Last month, Mayor Vincent A. Cianci, Jr. of Providence repossessed the carving and filed suit against Bruce Babbitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior, Hui Mālama i Nā Kūpuna o Hawai'i Nei and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs over ownership of a 200-year old ki'i lā'au, a carved wooden spear rest that onee was part of a chief's eanoe. The suit charges that the ki'i does not qualify as a "cultural item" under federal definitions, and that its right of ownership is being violated under the U.S. Constitution. The suit seeks to permanently enjoin the Department of Interior from enforcing provisions against NAGPRA against the city of Providence. Kunani Nihipali, director of Hui Mālama, said the spear rest was made specifically for a warrior chief to mark his eonneehon, both to the god of war and to the spirits of his ancestors embodied in the object. Because such sacred objects were not traded or sold, this one could only have been stolen,

perhaps from a burial cave," Nihipali said. "It would not be given away." Cianci said his city's experts were not allowed to be represented by counsel or to present their expert testimony at the federal review committee meeting in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. OHA attorney Sherry Broder said the board needs to consider the suit and determine its course of action as soon as it is able to reorganize. OHA has until January 24 to respond to the filing. She said that the ehain of title ownership claimed by the museum is questionable. The ki'i 'aumakua is being kept by the Rhode Island museum at an undisclosed loeahon. It was donated in 1922 to the Roger Williams Park Museum of Natural History by the Providence Franklin Society.