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The Oahu Island Burial Council said Wednesday it has found no reason to suspect any human burials exist at the site of a controversial construction project in Waimanalo.
The Burial Council heard a presentation Wednesday from city archaeologists. While the Council said there do not appear to be any burials at the site, the members also said they are not confident in the archaeological testing that has been done.
Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, the council’s chairwoman, said the council has been called to be more vigilant about possible iwi kupuna (ancestral bones) at the Waimanalo Bay Beach Park’s so-called Sherwood Forest, where the city has started construction on a park that will include a multipurpose field, small parking lot and play structure.
Opponents of the park have asked the Burial Council to support the effort to halt park construction by looking into the presence
of ancient Hawaiian burials, Wong-Kalu said.
“If I go back (to opponents) and I’m challenged again, I’m going to say you (city archaeologists) came before us, and according to what you presented, there’s no immediate cause for … our presence to be invoked,” Wong-Kalu said.
Wong-Kalu also said park opponents shouldn’t use the issue of Hawaiian burials to fight the project and that the council should not be held liable if the burials are not the actual reason the community wants to stop the project.
Before it was a cultural issue, construction at Waimanalo Bay Beach Park was met with opposition because of its potential to bring in more tourism and development to the neighborhood.
Pacific Legacy, the firm in charge of archaeological monitoring for the project, reaffirmed its position that to date no human remains have been found at the
project site.
That included dismissing the significance of the
artifact found Sept. 28 by
archaeologist Patrick Kirch that was believed to have been part of an adze, an
ax-like tool that could have been brought over by
Hawaii’s first arrivals.
“We’re not really sure where it came from,” said Paul Cleghorn, principal
and senior archaeologist for Pacific Legacy. “It could be ancient Hawaiian, it could have been brought in by … the military.”
Kuike Kamakea-Ohelo, president of Save our Sherwoods, said that the council has not been diligent enough and that the archaeological testing has been insufficient.
“The archaeologists don’t know,” Kamakea-Ohelo said “That rock didn’t get here alone. … This is not enough time to determine (its significance).”
Despite the Burial Council’s acceptance that no
human remains have been found on the project site,
its members were unsatisfied with efforts to determine if there are any.
“The Burial Council advocates for greater amount
of testing,” Wong-Kalu said.
“If this project was happening today in the Kona district and they sat us down for a consultation with the recognized descendents from the Kona district, we would have automatically said that this was not sufficient,” said Mana Caceres, one of the council’s members.
The city’s presentation included a summary and map of the project area and the 40 years of archaeological digs performed there. The council pointed out the high number of coring samples done in other parts of Waimanalo Bay Beach Park that they would have liked to have seen done for the
75-acre project. Seventeen coring sites covering less than half the area of the project site were identified on the map, although other forms of testing have been performed there.
Wong-Kalu said that burials and other cultural artifacts are often found near the coast, and digs at Waimanalo Bay Beach Park have shown that to be the case in the area as well.
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