Our Temples and Graveyards
All indigenous peoples have special places that are manifestations of the sacred, of their values and of their love of their home. Ours include special mountains, unusual places and where we bury our ancestors. We also have heiau (temples) and ahu (altars) where we worship and pray but also where we study or go for healing. Just on our small 16 mile leeward coast, the Waianae Wahipana, there are more than 30 such sacred sites that are still in use as Kane places of worship. These are supposed to be protected by United States federal and state law, as well as the guarantees of the United Nations' Conventions on Religious Freedom. These protections are sadly neglected or deliberately violated in modern-day Hawaii. Even worse, our burial grounds are constantly disturbed, pillaged and desecrated—and in spite of all the so-called protections of U.S. law.
When others have the power to desecrate worship sites and burial grounds, it is a form of cultural genocide.
This page is under further construction.