Hawaii Island burial council meeting cancelled, delaying protection of ancestral remains

News admin June 4, 2026 0 Comments

Hawaii Island burial council meeting cancelled, delaying protection of ancestral remains

HAWAIIAN PARADISE PARK, Hawaii — There’s growing frustration on the island of Hawaii, where important votes on iwi kūpuna, or ancestral bones, are on hold.

On Wednesday, another burial council meeting was cancelled due to a lack of quorum.

The burial councils on each island are supposed to have nine members, but on Hawaii Island, there are now four vacancies after a council member resigned last week. One cultural descendant says it makes protecting the bones of his ancestors even more difficult.

In 2023, iwi kūpuna were discovered in a burial cave in Hawaiian Paradise Park, within the ahupuaʻa of Waikahekahe Iki.

Cultural descendant of the iwi, Keoni Kealoha Alvarez, says it was eight sets of human remains.

The Hawaiian Paradise Owners Association had planned to build 1,400 mailboxes and bulldozing started, but the discovery stopped the project.

Now the iwi need a burial treatment plan approved by the Hawaii Island Burial Council, but Alvarez says for three years, action has stalled because of cancelled meetings, lack of quorum, or internal feuds.

“In 2024 and 2025, half of the year we had no meetings so that made it very difficult for me in trying to protect this burial site because nothing was getting done,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez says the iwi are safe for now. The community built a rock wall, covered the cave, and put up make-shift signs, but they need an approved burial treatment plan to ensure their protection in perpetuity including permanent signage.

Palikapu Dedman with the Pele Defense Fund said it is frustrating for kūpuna and family.

“They hold up a lot of the progress when the original families come forward especially kupuna to take care of so called burials, but they don’t have meetings, they don’t have quorum, and that keeps going. That hangs up the family,” Dedman said.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) said in a statement, “Future issues with quorum are anticipated to be resolved by House Bill 2104. Once the Governor signs the bill into law, quorum will be determined by the number of council members appointed and/or confirmed rather than by number of council seats in total.”

The office of the Governor says, “We are actively working to identify residents that have the right qualifications and meet the specific criteria described in the Hawaiʻi Revised Statues for appointment.”

DLNR says agenda items will be added to next month’s agenda and progress is expected to continue.