Ancestors before Us: Manifestations of Tradition in a Hawaiian Dispute

Is it sacred or secular? Was it used for ritual purposes in the past? How would it be used for ritual purposes in the present? Such are the questions raised by a recent dispute over a Hawaiian object (ki‘i). The dispute erupted when a group of Hawaiian representatives discovered that the Roger Williams Museum intended to sell the object in question. Hawaiians sought repatriation of the ki‘i under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), and the dispute was heard twice by the NAGPRA Review Committee. This article explores the dispute and analyzes discourses of “tradition” utilized by both parties. Primary attention is paid to Hawaiians' claims, particularly the way in which they linked aspects of cultural history to present conflicts concerning land issues and sovereignty. Engaging recent literature concerning the theorization of tradition in the Pacific, the article concludes by arguing that Hawaiian claims about the ki‘i, though seemingly spurious at points, express the suppleness of tradition in ways that move beyond the mere invention of tradition, provoking us to contemplate traditional sources of novelty.