Museum Prepares to Send Nine Hawaiian Cultural Treasures Home
Published Date: 10/30/2026
Notice
Summary
The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu plans to return nine Native Hawaiian cultural items, like carved figures and feather fragments, to Native Hawaiian groups starting November 30, 2026. These items were originally collected from a burial site on Hawai‘i Island over a century ago. This repatriation respects Native Hawaiian heritage and follows federal law, with no costs mentioned for the public.
Analyzed Economic Effects
4 provisions identified: 3 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.
Museum will return nine Native Hawaiian items
The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum intends to return nine unassociated funerary objects (carved stick images, refuse bowls, a feather cape fragment, a carved female figure, a hair helmet/wig, and a boar tusk bracelet) collected in 1905 from Honokoʻoa Gulch (Forbes Cave) on Hawaiʻi Island and received by the museum in 1907. The museum has identified the Mary Kawena Pukui Cultural Preservation Society and affiliated ʻOhana groups (the Pukui Society Group) and Aloha ʻĀina o Hawaiʻi, Inc. as having a cultural affiliation to these items.
Repatriation can occur starting November 30, 2026
Repatriation of the nine cultural items may occur on or after November 30, 2026. Interested parties should note that date as the earliest date the museum may transfer the items.
Other groups may request repatriation with evidence
Any lineal descendant, Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian organization not named in this notice may submit a written request for the items if they show by a preponderance of the evidence that they are a lineal descendant or culturally affiliated. Requests must be sent to the museum contact listed in the notice.
Museum resolves competing or joint repatriation requests
If competing requests for the items are received, the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum must determine the most appropriate requestor before repatriation. Requests submitted jointly are treated as a single request rather than competing requests.
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