SPK returns human remains and burial objects to Hawai'i

The human remains have been in the care of the Museums für Vor- und Frühgeschichte (Museum of Prehistory and Early History) of the Berlin State Museums since 2011. The burial objects were part of the collection of the Ethnological Museum for around 135 years.

In late 2021, the SPK Board of Trustees decided to repatriate both human remains and burial objects to Hawai'i. In a first step, 32 iwi kūpuna were restituted to Hui Iwi Kuamo'o on February 11, 2022, whose members traveled to Berlin to accompany the ancestors to their homeland. After a private ceremony, a solemn public handover ceremony took place in the museum. In a second handover, more human remains and the burial objects followed, including a spear, two calabashes and a stone disc.

Based on the inscriptions "Sandwich Islands" and "Hawaii", the three skulls and the skull cap can be clearly assigned to the Pacific archipelago and could now be returned. However, despite thorough provenance research, it was not possible to assign the human remains to a specific site or burial cave.

The circumstances of the appropriation also spoke in favor of the return of the burial objects that were part of the collection of the Ethological Museum. They come from the collection of Eduard Arning, who, according to his information, took them from burial caves in Hawaiʻi around 1885. Arning reports in his notes that he entered the caves secretly and specifically avoided being seen by Hawaiians, who would certainly have frowned upon his actions. Tombs are everywhere and at all times particularly protected places that are of great importance, especially for the relatives of the buried. With the clandestine removal of the objects from these burial contexts, there is an injustice that requires the objects to be returned to Hawaiʻi.