Native Hawaiians have very strong respect for the remains of their dead. Hawaiian state law protects Native Hawiian remains, known as iwi. Native Hawaiians consider burial sites as sacred. Last year, Wal Mart's actions in building a store over a site with approximately 60 sets of iwi, and then simply storing the iwi in boxes under the store's parking ramp while not burying them was considered to be hurtful and disrespectful.
This year, Whole Foods and General Growth Properties are in the spotlight. 11 sets of iwi were discovered on the site of a planned mall in Oahu that would contain a Whole Foods store and several apartments buildings; General Growth is the developer. The Oahu Island Burial Council decided not to mark the site as a grave, which would force a complete redevelopment. They declared that the iwi could be transferred to another burial site.
The problem was that in the process of exhuming the iwi, another 30-40 sets of iwi were discovered. Had the Council known that there were that many iwi, they might have decided to designate the site as a grave. It would have forced General Growth to go back to the drawing board, but that's state law. As it is, the matter is now in the hands of the State Historical Preservation Division.
This is a $150 million project; construction on one part of the Whole Foods site has been prohibited for some time, and this is costing the developers a lot of money. General Growth's senior VP, Dwight Yoshimura, had this to say:
Dwight Yoshimura, General Growth's senior vice president, said "every letter of the law" has been followed. The Chicago-based company said many of the remains were discovered during an archaeological survey that it voluntarily commissioned at its own expense, even though it had already obtained all necessary building permits.
"We went ahead and tried to do the right thing," Yoshimura said.
The company wants the remains moved to three locations at the site. Some Native Hawaiians want the bones put back where they were.
I don't think that General Growth really gets it. One Hawaiian activist asked how we would feel if someone wanted to build a mall on Arlington cemetery. I deliberately modified the question to ask what would happen if it were a Japanese or Arab company - Vincent Chin was murdered because of resentment towards Japanese auto makers' encroachment into the US (Chin, by the way, is a Chinese name, but his attackers assumed he was Japanese). More recently, an Arab firm's planned acquisition of a US port was forbidden due to security concerns. The answer is that Americans would be outraged, and some people would probably call for nuclear missiles to be launched.
Well, the Native Hawaiians have no nuclear missiles. They have little money or influence. They do have state law, but the relevant commisions can decide that the remains should be moved. Hawaiians, I gather, would very much rather not disturb the iwi. They would rather just leave them where they are, and redevelop the malls around the remains.
Well, perhaps Whole Foods and General Growth should take the matter out of the commision's hands. They should work with Native Hawaiian leaders to redevelop the property so that the remains are undisturbed. This is clearly a significant burial ground no matter what the commision might say. Pre-empting the commision in this way would go a long way to healing some of the damage that development without regard to indigenous peoples' rights has done to the psyche of Hawaiians. It would restore the companies' reputations with Native Hawaiians.
It would simply be the right thing to do, and in fact it would not be unprecedented.
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Maui, where 1,000 graves dating to the year 850 were unearthed during excavation in the late 1980s, was completely redesigned at a cost of millions and moved inland. The remains were preserved in a spot now registered as a state historic place, with signs informing visitors about its cultural significance.
More recently, Fifield Cos. agreed to relocate the parking garage and make other changes in a $300 million Waikiki condo project now under construction.
Whole Foods prides itself on being socially and environmentally responsible. It's time for Whole Foods to step up to the plate. If you're a shareholder, write to or call:
Shareholder Services
Whole Foods Market, Inc.
550 Bowie Street
Austin, Texas 78703
512.477.4455, ext. 20801
And/or, you can email them at this page.
No comments:
Post a Comment