Iwi Kuamo‘o

Through ‘Aha Kāne, a brief presentation of our Project Iwi Kuamo‘o: Capacity Building for Ka Lāhui Hawai‘i in the fundamental responsibility to care for the bones of the ancestors.

The project goal is to improve the care and protection of ancestral Hawaiian bones and burial sites through training in traditional and contemporary repatriation and reburial practices. The objective is to in 3 years for 300 Native Hawaiians from 6 islands to improve their ability to care for ancestral Hawaiian bones by achieving competency in repatriation and reburial practices including (1) Ceremonial Protocols; (2) Reburial Materials (Kapa and Hīna‘i Lauhala); (3) Reburial Platforms; (4) Repatriation Advocacy; and (5) Burial Sites Management in order to protect burial sites in place and return bones from museums for reburial.