KC3 Final Essay

Hawaiian Land Being Dug Up

Hawaiian land is very special to the Native Hawaiians. They took care for the land, fought for the land and used their land for many different resources. But as new buildings and roads are under construction, burial sites and Hawaiian history are being destroyed. This means we need to make new plans. Leave the land or destroy the Hawaiian history. 

Construction workers are in a dispute over bones. The construction workers find these remains when digging up the ground for their new projects. Although that they want to dig up burial cites because they need to do their job , these are the burials of individuals who are remembered and their stories are handed down to the younger generations. These burials are far greater importance. People should respect others wishes or cultural perspectives, including the wish to leave burials in place. The old Hawaiian religion was abolished during the year before American missionaries arrived. It is disrespectful to the ancestors for today's "maka'ainana" to try reinstate what THEIR "ali'i" did. The foremen should just respect the Hawaiian's perspective on how disrespectful it would be to destroy their history. 

Say if construction workers find some Native Hawaiian remains while working on some new building projects and then leave the remains in their state that they're in. If so, then these foremen would have to make a multimillion dollar redesign to avoid disturbing the bones or the project might get cancelled. In Kapalua, Maui, where a corporation was excavating near the shoreline to build a large hotel. About 900 sets of skeletal remains were excavated from the sand dunes during construction. The project was redesigned to set the hotel back farther from the shoreline, and the bones were reburied where they had been found. There is now a landscaped burial ground on the ocean side of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, set off from the rest of the hotel property by bushes and informational signs asking tourists to show respect. I think these were good actions cause it shows that these construction workers show respect for the bones. But they must have spent a lot of money to rebury these bones. It shows that not all construction workers will disturb the burials. Just some foremen need to learn to respect these burials. From 1915 to 1992, about 1600 skeletons were removed and sent to Bishop Museum. From 1938-1940, archeologists Bowles and Emory, working for the University of Hawai'i and Bishop Museum, removed 965 sets of remains and delivered them to Bishop Museum for study and "safekeeping." The bones apparently have still not been reburied even though Bishop Museum is eager to give them away. I think this very disrespectful to these remains. I don't like the fact that they were using these skeletons for commercial uses. 

People must be thinking what are the modern Hawaiians are doing to stop this detriment. Kawaiaha`o Church in Honolulu has been digging up the bones of Hawaiians buried in the Kawaiaha`o Church cemetery so they can build a new social hall. I found this information from a protest group. They have been called by the police by the Kawaiaha`o Church. With the result of some of arrested protesters who have relatives buried in the church's cemetery. I think this is very wrong. These protesters have the right to fight back for their relatives.  Some people are even spreading the word of Hawaiian land being dug up for commercial uses. Protesters are holding signs, using social networking sites, and having fundraisers. This is a great way of spreading the word. Once protesters spread the word other people will get involved and fight too. 

This is an important message because disturbing burials is disrespectful to all the Hawaiian history. We must follow what the Native Hawaiians did for their land. We shall fight back, say no to digging up to burials, and spread the word about depicting historical sites. Therefore, we will not destroy the Hawaiian History.