A packed courtroom erupted into tears and bellowing chants after a federal judge on Tuesday found four leaders of a Hawaiian group in contempt for refusing to disclose where they buried native Hawaiian artifacts borrowed from a museum.
Edward Halealoha Ayau, executive director of Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawaii Nei, was taken into federal custody after refusing Chief US District Judge David's Ezra's order to reveal the exact location of the 83 artifacts borrowed from Bishop Museum.
Ayau told Ezra that he would be honored to be placed in custody.
PHOTO: AP
"We did the honorable thing," he said.
Board members William Aila, Pualani Kanahele and Antoinette Freitas, were also found in contempt, but not jailed.
Ezra ordered Ayau to be kept in custody until he or others return the ancient objects or come forward with their location.
The judge said it was not necessary that the objects be returned to the Bishop Museum, but it was necessary that Hui Malama follow the court's order.
"Make no mistake about it, the court's order will be complied with," he said.
The four were called before the court to explain why they have refused to abide by a federal court order and state the locations of the objects and name those who had participated in their reburial.
Hui Malama has told the court that the items have been buried and sealed in the Kawaihae Cave complex on the Big Island. But Ezra said on Tuesday that the court needs a more precise location to better preserve and protect the artifacts.
Hui Malama said the artifacts were looted from a cave by an archaeologist in 1905 and illegally sold to the museum. The group argued that it has simply put the items back where they belong. But 13 other groups also claim ownership of the objects.
Hui Malama considers the objects funerary, even though Ezra said other Hawaiian groups have a different interpretation of the artifacts' spiritual significance.
"Your clients don't have the corner on the native Hawaiian religion," Ezra told the group's attorney before issuing the contempt order.
Sherry Broder, an attorney for the groups Na Lei Alii Kawananakoa and the Royal Hawaiian Academy of Traditional Arts, which sued Hui Malama for the objects' return, said Ezra had already bent over backward to accommodate members of Hui Malama.
Ezra said he had hoped that the groups involved could work out their differences but has heard only rhetoric on both sides.
Supporters of Hui Malama shouted and wept as the hearing closed and Ezra ordered everyone but the press to leave.
Kihei Nahalea, of the Big Island, was ordered by Ezra to spend five days in jail for contempt of court for shouting out as he left the courtroom.
A crowd then gathered just outside the courtroom and began wailing plaintive Hawaiian chants.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Kemal Ozdemir looked up at the bare peaks of Mount Cilo in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast. “There were glaciers 10 years ago,” he recalled under a cloudless sky. A mountain guide for 15 years, Ozdemir then turned toward the torrent carrying dozens of blocks of ice below a slope covered with grass and rocks — a sign of glacier loss being exacerbated by global warming. “You can see that there are quite a few pieces of glacier in the water right now ... the reason why the waterfalls flow lushly actually shows us how fast the ice is melting,” he said.
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS