Lawsuit again stops Kawaiaha’o work

Kawaiaha’o Church has stopped construction again on a controversial multipurpose building — this time because of a complaint that the church is disregarding a state requirement to remove human burials found on the construction site.

Paulette Kaleikini filed a lawsuit last week against the church and state officials, alleging that the historic Honolulu church was moving ahead with compacting the ground and pouring a concrete foundation without fulfilling an agreement to disinter and relocate burials to another part of the church’s cemetery.

Circuit Court Judge Edwin Nacino granted a temporary restraining order, halting construction, and has scheduled a hearing on the issue for today.

It is the second time that work has been stopped since construction initially began in early 2009 on the $17.5 million multipurpose building. The facility is intended to help the 159-year-old church, referred to as "the Westminster Abbey of Hawaii," broaden its mission and membership.

It is also the third time the church has been sued over the project that has incensed native Hawaiians who insist their cultural beliefs in iwi kupuna, or ancestral bones, should be respected.

Kaleikini, who is recognized as having ancestors buried on Kawaiaha’o grounds, called the church barbaric for refusing to accommodate Hawaiian families who don’t want their ancestors desecrated.

"They call Kawaiaha’o a church, but actually it’s a corporation doing business under the name of Christ," she said. "They’re just a bunch of hooligans rampaging through the cemetery digging up ancestral bones like it’s Halloween."

"If the bones were their ancestors, it would be their business," Kaleikini said. "But these are not their ancestors. I am a state recognized lineal descendant of kupuna buried in the project site area and my ohana does mind that they are desecrating the remains of our kupuna."

Church spokesman John Williamson said church officials were not prepared to comment publicly, but would respond to the lawsuit in court.

Kaleikini’s suit claims that the church agreed to look for and remove any burials on the project site under conditions imposed by the State Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources. The suit claims the church is now moving forward with construction without removing the burials underneath.

Though Kaleikini seeks to prevent construction of the new building because burials have not been removed, she also is against removing burials.

Kaleikini, also known as Ka’anohi Kaleikini, contends in her lawsuit that three members of her family — David Kanuha, Esther Holstein and Mary Kamaka — are buried at the building site.

"Building the multipurpose center on top of graves violates … the disinterment permit" the state gave the church, allowing it to move forward with construction, the suit said.

Kaleikini’s suit said there are at least seven known burials on the site, and that church archaeologists have identified 52 pit features that could be burials.

The building site is next to Kawaiaha’o’s main church building on land formerly occupied by a parking lot, offices and Likeke Hall. The church built Likeke Hall in 1940 on part of its cemetery, and disintered 117 burials during construction. Likeke was demolished in 2008.

The state Department of Health issued a disinterment permit in October 2010 to allow construction of the building to proceed after a two-year suspension triggered when 69 burials were unearthed while utility line trenches were dug. Certain conditions were attached to the permit.

After construction was cleared to resume, the church announced in January it would proceed with hand excavation. Native Hawaiians opposed to disturbing iwi protested on church grounds, but the church vowed to continue with its building while also trying to work out differences with opponents.

A key condition of the disinterment permit required the church to excavate the entire site 4 feet deep to insure no human burials remained on the site. This was a DLNR condition.

In July, the church notified DLNR in a letter that it had reached a "uniform" agreement with interested parties to limit excavation to 15 percent of the site, essentially the area for foundation footings.

The church said in its letter that it didn’t regard the change as substantive, and suggested it was "clarifying" the disinterment permit that called for total site excavation.

Kaleikini’s suit claims the church, by not excavating the entire site, violated conditions of the permit and construction should be halted.

DLNR and the Health Department, two agencies mentioned in the lawsuit, would not comment because the litigation is pending.

Kaleikini’s lawsuit follows two others filed in connection with the building.

Hawaiian cultural specialist Dana Naone Hall, whose relatives are buried at Kawaiaha’o, filed a lawsuit in 2009 contending the state’s burial law protecting Native Hawaiian burials was being violated, but a judge in a preliminary opinion said Hall was unlikely to win the case and refused to inhibit construction. The judge ruled the law did not apply because of an exemption for cemeteries, given that the Kawaiaha’o burials were of a Christian nature as evidenced by coffins.

Another suit was filed in 2009 by Abigail Kawananakoa, a relative of Queen Kapiolani, who alleged that trenching work encroached on the family burial plot.

That suit was settled a year ago. The terms were not disclosed.