Iwi KÅ«puna Repatriation Worldwide

April 20, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Mānoa Campus, John A. Burns Hall, Room 3118, 1601 East-West Road Add to Calendar

Please join us for a Public Seminar by Edward Halealoha Ayau, Former Executive Director, Hui Mālama I Nā Kūpuna O Hawai‘i Nei

Edward Halealoha Ayau, a leader in the movement to repatriate iwi kūpuna and moepū from all over the world, will talk about this work which started with the founding of Hui Mālama I Nā Kūpuna O Hawai‘i Nei, to care for and protect iwi kūpuna (ancestral Hawaiian skeletal remains) and moepū (funerary possessions) through repatriation and reburial. Under Halealoha’s directorship, the organization repatriated about 6,000 ancestral Native Hawaiian remains and funerary objects from museums in Hawai‘i, the continental U.S., Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, England, Germany and Scotland between 1990 and 2015 when it was formally dissolved.

Prior to Hui Mālama I Nā Kūpuna O Hawai‘i Nei, Halealoha, served as the first director of the State Burial Sites Program in the Department of Land and Natural Resources, where he drafted and helped to promulgate the Hawai‘i Administrative Rules Chapter 13-300 for Human Remains and Burial Sites, and led successful efforts to enact laws to establish island burial councils. Raised on Hawaiian homestead on Molokai, he attended Kamehameha Schools, the University of Redlands (BA, 1987) and the University of Colorado (JD, 1989). While in Boulder, he clerked for the Native American Rights Fund, and went on to work in the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, the Office of U. S. Senator Daniel Inouye, and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. Currently working for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, he continues international repatriation case work as a volunteer for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Free and open to the public

Seating is limited


Ticket Information
Please RSVP at: 944-7111 or EWCInfo@EastWestCenter.org

Paid parking is available on the UHM campus

Event Sponsor
East-West Center, Mānoa Campus

More Information
(808) 944-7111, EWCInfo@eastwestcenter.org

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