| PO Box 115, Hana HI 96713 • contact@savehanacoast.org • (808) 650-2722 |
Press Release
For Immediate Release
May 28, 2021
KE AO HALI‘I RECEIVES $34,300 FROM OHA FOR NĀ KIA‘I IWI KŪPUNA O HĀNA PROJECT
HĀNA, MAUI, HAWAII – Ke Ao Hali‘i (Save the Hāna Coast) today announced a grant award totaling $34,300 that will support the Native Hawaiian community through the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) Iwi Kupuna Repatriation & Reinterment Program Grants. The grant will help to reinforce and strengthen Native Hawaiians’ ‘ohana (family), moʻomeheu (culture) and ʻāina (land and water).
With a $34,300 OHA grant award, Ke Ao Hāli‘i will provide long-term preservation measures, reinterment and repatriation in the protection of our Iwi Kūpuna to the Hana community, Maui County to stop future desecration of our iwi kūpuna o Hāna. Ke Ao Hāli’i expect to inter the iwi kūpuna as soon as the design plan is ready, completed and prepared. We plan to build several ahu, a vault, and place signage to educate visitors and local residents on the significance of our iwi kūpuna o Hāna within a year.
In the meantime, several Hāna community members will be undertaking some training in July 2021 to handle our iwi kūpuna properly. Our intent is to safeguard our iwi kūpuna and to register the ahupua’a as “known burial sites” to stop further desecration. Nā Kia‘i Iwi Kūpuna O Hāna Project is overdue, our iwi kūpuna has been in storage for over 30 years and our lineal descendants, cultural descendants, Hāna Community and Ke Ao Hāli’i will be relieved soon as they are returned home.
The purpose of the Iwi Kupuna Repatriation & Reinterment Program is to serve the Native Hawaiian lāhui in alignment with the strategic foundations, directions, and outcomes of OHA’s 15-year Mana i Mauli Ola Strategic Plan.
About Ke Ao Hāli‘i
Ke Ao Hāli’iʻs mission is to protect and preserve the natural and cultural resources of the Hāna moku and the customary and traditional practices of Native Hawaiians of the region; to hold title to and own interests in real property or to hold easements; to preserve and manage the area’s natural, cultural, scenic, historic and marine resources for the benefit, education and enjoyment of our community and future generations.
In March 2020, Ke Ao Hāli‘i acquired 27 acres of Mokae lands near Hāmoa Beach for perpetual conservation and cultural stewardship, with the support of the Maui County Open Space Fund and the state Legacy Land Conservation Program, and is in the process of acquiring 63 more acres in Mokae and Maka’alae.
Learn more at SaveHanaCoast.org
CONTACT: Mary Ann Kahana
Ke Ao Hāli‘i
Phone: (808) 856-9266
Or (808) 650-2722 (voicemail)
Email: 82mkahana@gmail.com or contact@savehanacoast.org