FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Descendants of those whose remains rest under the burial mound in Waikiki gathered yesterday for a dedication and blessing. The remains were displaced by construction projects in the area.

Burial mound
dedicated in Waikiki

The memorial houses 200 remains
disturbed by city construction

---

By Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.com

A burial mound protecting the skeletal remains of 200 Hawaiians displaced by Waikiki construction projects was formally dedicated and blessed yesterday morning.

The eight-sided memorial in front of the Honolulu Zoo also laid to rest a controversy over what to do with the iwi kupuna (skeletal ancestral remains) that continue to be displaced by construction projects in Waikiki. The remains already in place fill only the west-facing side of the memorial, allowing room for hundreds more should the need arise.

"This is the affirmation of what happens when families assume their responsibility and the community provides support for it to take place," said A. Van Horn Diamond, speaking on behalf of the descendants who claim the remains.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Memorial designer Keawe Keohokalole, left, welcomed Jimmy Medeiros with a traditional greeting prior to yesterday's ceremony.

The families became involved in the project when several sets of remains were discovered as the Board of Water Supply installed a 14-inch water pipe through Waikiki. As progress along Kalakaua Avenue needed to go forward, Diamond said, "Every time a kupuna was found, the families came and made the determination whether they were safe and secure where they were or whether they had to be moved."

Working with city government, the descendants won the right to create the monument with $250,000 in city funds.

Diamond said that Mayor Jeremy Harris and City Councilman Duke Bainum helped to reinter the bodies before dawn.

"We have a responsibility to recognize that we owe to them everything that we are -- blood and flesh and spirit and soul," Harris told the group of approximately 100 gathered at the memorial. Gathered at the memorial were about 20 lineal descendants of those who now rest beneath the mound.

Emalia Keohokalole, whose brother Joseph Keaweaheulu Keohokalole designed the memorial, said that her family was one of nine that could trace its lineage back to High Chiefess Ane Keohokalole, biological mother of Prince David Kalakaua and Queen Liliuokalani.

Keohokalole described the collaboration between the city and the Hawaiian families as "tremendous."

"In a sense we've exercised our sovereignty," she said, but without clashing with the government or other Hawaiians. They set aside differences by focusing on what was important: "Kupuna first," she said.

The monument "gives Hawaiians something to be proud of," said her brother, Kilo Keohokalole. "The first people who lived in Waikiki are now back at home, and they now are in place."