Hawaiian Royalty Burial Grounds: Lawmakers Punt On Oversight Woes
Lawmakers are hesitant to move quickly on the sensitive issue and want a task force to come back in two years with a proposal for how to oversee Mauna ‘Ala.
State lawmakers still don’t have an answer to a yearslong controversy over the management of Mauna ‘Ala, the burial place for most of Hawai‘i’s monarchs.
The Senate began this session with a proposal to move management of Mauna ‘Ala, now known officially as the Royal Mausoleum State Monument, from the control of the state parks division under the Department of Land and Natural Resources to an independent commission that would include the likes of Kamehameha Schools and the Liliʻuokalani Trust, organizations that already pay for the upkeep of the grounds.
But on Thursday, the Senate Hawaiian Affairs Committee punted the issue to 2028, instead opting to advance a measure creating a working group to study the management of Mauna ‘Ala and propose a new oversight entity to lawmakers in two years.
Sen. Tim Richards, the committee chairman, said there needs to be more discussion and ho‘oponopono, the concept of making things right, before lawmakers take action.
“This is a very important and sensitive thing as we go forward,” Richards said. “And I want the stakeholders at the table helping to design how we are going to go forward.”
He issued a similar edict last year in killing a bill that would have instead transferred authority to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
Curator Selection Spurred Bill
Mauna ʻAla was established in 1864 to house the remains of Kamehameha’s descendants and their close advisers. It later became the resting place for relatives of David Kalākaua and other royal lineages.
For generations, the responsibility of caring for Mauna ʻAla fell to one family who traced their lineage to the brothers who hid the remains of Kamehameha I.
The last long-serving curator, Bill Maioho, died in 2015. His son, William Kaiheekai Maioho, took over soon after but left the position a few years later. Family members filled in on an interim basis until 2023, when the state began looking for a permanent successor. DLNR selected Donni Chong, the current curator, to permanently fill the role in 2024.
The selection of Chong caused a stir in the community two years ago because it broke with tradition. Senate Bill 3247 appeared to many stakeholders to be the solution, until lawmakers voted to unanimously on Thursday to push the issue another two years.
The original bill was “the best compromise I’ve seen in my three years of trying to remedy this thing,” James Maioho told senators at a hearing Tuesday.
Maioho is a descendant of the family that for generations held the responsibility of caring for Mauna ʻAla and was one of the finalists for the kahu position in 2024.
The original draft of SB 3247 would have let an independent commission of representatives from the Aliʻi Trusts and Hawaiian Royal Societies lay out the process for hiring the kahu and establish guidelines for cultural practices at Mauna ‘Ala.
The commission would have included members from the trusts: Kamehameha Schools, The Queen’s Health Systems, Kapiʻolani Medical Center, Liliʻuokalani Trust and Lunalilo Trust.
The Royal Order of Kamehameha I, ʻAhahui Kaʻahumanu, Hale O Na Aliʻi O Hawaiʻi Ahahui Poo, and the Daughters and Sons of Hawaiian Warriors, also known as Māmakakaua, would also have seats on the commission.
Other seats would have gone to members appointed by the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, one of the five island burial councils, two descendants of the Kamehameha and Kalākaua dynasties and two members appointed by the House and Senate.
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All of those organizations would now be part of the working group.
The Aliʻi Trusts, whose benefactors are buried at Mauna ‘Ala, have been the primary source of funding for maintenance at the site under an agreement with the state since 2013.
The trusts, along with OHA and the state, have contributed about $2 million to maintenance projects in the last two years, Alan Carpenter, head of the parks division, told lawmakers Tuesday.
Most of the testifiers at a hearing earlier this week had supported the measure, including the Royal Order of Kamehameha and the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs. Others, however, had warned that the bill wouldn’t prevent another dustup over the selection of the next kahu.
