LIHU‘E — Work was supposed to have begun Tuesday to check for burials or cultural layers along Wailua Beach where a multi-use path is to be built.
Beth Tokioka, administrative aide to Mayor Bernard P. Carvalho Jr., said “equipment issues” — not a protest by a few Native Hawaiians, including Waldeen Palmeira — delayed the planned start.
“It’s direct desecration and destruction without the proper proceedings and procedures,” Palmeira said. “You don’t do archaeological subsurface testing on a known burial ground.”
Kaua‘i Police Department and state Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Conservation and Resource Enforcement officers were on hand for Tuesday morning’s scheduled start of what Tokioka called “subsurface archaeological inventory work on the portion of the shared-use path between the Wailua River bridge and the former Seashell Restaurant.”
Cultural Surveys Hawai‘i, the county’s archaeological consultant, “is testing to insure that there are no burials or cultural layers existing that might be disturbed by the work,” Tokioka said in an e-mail.
“The consultant has all necessary permits for the surveying,” she said.
Palmeira and others are sure burial sites are present on the beach, which the inventory work will confirm.
A full archaeological inventory survey is necessary, as well as consultation with Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners and lineal descendants of those buried beneath Wailua Beach, before any ground-disturbing work is done, Palmeira said.
“It doesn’t start with the bulldozer. It starts with consultation, because these properties are national treasures” that have existed for centuries, she said.
Lack of an AIS violates federal law, said Palmeira. Instead, a less-in-depth archaeological assessment was conducted, she said.
“They do not have the proper legal authority to do any ground-disturbing activities,” she said. “This is not a pono process.”
What would be right is preservation of the important area for future generations, said Palmeira.
• Paul C. Curtis, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com.
