Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 39, Number 1, 1 January 2022 — An International Repatriation Effort that Spanned 26 Years [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

An International Repatriation Effort that Spanned 26 Years

J I MANA I KA 'OIWI V ^ EMPOWERED BY OUR ANCESTRY "

By Edward Halealoha Ayau After a 26-year efFort, three iwi po'o (skulls) and one 'ālalo (mandible) from Honolulu and Wai'alae, O'ahu, were repatriated from Germany's Staatliches Museum fur Volkerkunde Dresden in October 2017. It began in 1991 when Hui Mālama i Nā Kūpuna o Hawai'i Nei President Edward Kanahele wrote to the Dresden Museum to request the return of all Hawaiian remains for proper reburial. His request was denied by Dr. Heinz Israel, director of the State Museum for Ethnology in Dresden. For years Hui Mālama tried to advocate for the return of these iwi through the U.S. State Department but to no avail. In 2015, 1 co-authored an article with Cherokee attorney Honor Keeler critiquing 2013 German Museum Association Repatriation Recommendations. The article detailed the Dresden Museums failures and in the article I referred to museum oflicials as "intellectual savages." I did not anticipate that the article would raise awareness of our experiences and, ultimatelv. lead to their decision to rer>atriate.

In June 2017, the loeal government there agreed to permanently release the iwi. We later learned it was the first repatriation from the Dresden Museum and the Free State of Saxony. At a news conference on Oct. 23, 2017, Director of the Museum of Ethnology Nanette Snoep stated, "Today is the first time that we restitute ancestral remains from Hawai'i back to their homeland; back to their earth, sand where they eome ffom. Back to the people who have waited for more than 100 years for the return of their ancestors." Dr. Marion Ackerman, director general of the Dresden State Art Collections said, "The restitution of human remains...is an act of humanity...an important part in the process of healing of historical injustice." Noting that the human remains in museum collections were largely acquired through theft, grave robbery or eolonial wars, State Minister of Science and Arts of the Free State of Saxony Dr. Eva-Maria Stange stated, "Today...we are looking at these collections from a different angle. They are being rehumanized... with their return, we are giving back their value..." Reflecting on the Dresden repatriation effort, delegation member Noelle Kahanu wrote, "1hese returns happened, not because a federal law mandated it, but because of individual and institutional relationships that have developed over time, because doors were opened by those who understood the humanity in returning iwi kūpuna to their homelands...it is a network of people working

together, inside, and outside of museums, redefining ethics and reasserting notions of human dignity, that will bring the last of our iwi kūpuna home." ■ Edward Halealoha Ayau is theformer executive director ofHui Mālama I Nā Kūpuna O Hawai'i Nei, a group that has repatriated and reinterred thousands ofancestral Native Hawaiian remains and funerary objects.

To read this article in 'Olelo

Dr. Kamana'opono Crabbe second from left) and Halealoha Ayau (speaking) wilh Hawai'i, go to kawaiola. German officials at a pub ie news conference at Dresden Museum on Oct. 23, news. 2017. - Photo: Courtesy