During a meeting of the OHA Board of Trustees on March 18, 2026, there was a discussion about repatriations. Several statements caused me to be confused and somewhat alarmed. I urge the Board to examine NAGPRA and learn.
Current events concerning the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), repatriations, legal definitions, and processes, prompt this communication. Originally intended, I believe, to be a vehicle for the repatriation of iwi kūpuna taken from Hawaiʻi for various purposes by various means, it has now become something different.
As we know, Hui Mālama i nā Kūpuna o Hawaiʻi Nei deserves credit and aloha for their passion and successes in the repatriation of many iwi kūpuna. That organization was officially dissolved on December 20, 2014. Its successor, Hui Iwi Kuamoʻo (HIK), one of 190 Native Hawaiian Organizations listed with the Department of Interior Office of Native Hawaiian Relations (ONHR), has been very active in recent repatriations, though mostly with secrecy.
With the passage of an “updated” 2024 version of NAGPRA, it seems that the focus of HIK has shifted to repatriating everything with origins in Native Hawaiian cultural practices held in museums and other institutions in America. Definitions were changed, supplemented, and/or added to accomplish their apparent goal. This includes asserting that seemingly everything can be sacred and needed for religious ritual:
2024: Sacred object means a specific ceremonial object needed by a traditional religious leader for present-day adherents to practice traditional Native American religion, according to the Native American traditional knowledge of a lineal descendant, Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian organization. While many items might be imbued with sacredness in a culture, this term is specifically limited to an object needed for the observance or renewal of a Native American religious ceremony.
And that the Native Hawaiian people have a singular united voice:
2024: (2) A people comprise the entire body of persons who constitute a community, Tribe, Nation, or other group by virtue of a common culture, history, religion, language, race, ethnicity, or similar feature. The Native Hawaiian Community is a “people.”
Adding “a people” to define Native Hawaiians is problematic. To many of us, there is no singular “Native Hawaiian Community.” Rather, there are a plethora of communities, depending on lineage, residence, political views, age, etc.
And, unlike previously, when claimants needed to be unanimous on the details of repatriation, now the restoring institution must choose the best, most suitable claimant to whom objects must be repatriated. When there are competing claims, I am concerned that an institution outside Hawaiʻi might be challenged to decide the authority of various claimants.
2024: (e) Competing claims or requests. A museum, Federal agency, or DHHL must determine the Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization with the closest cultural affiliation.
Hundreds of thousands of Native Hawaiians live outside Hawaiʻi. Wouldn’t it be a good thing for them to be able to go to nearby institutions and visit objects of their heritage to be able to appreciate and learn from them?
