Health department orders construction halt at Kauai property after arrests and iwi discovery

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – On Kauai’s North Shore, the Department of Health has ordered construction of a septic system to stop after ancestral remains were discovered. After several emotional arrests on the property last week, descendents of the iwi kūpuna (ancestral remains) are now celebrating.
The issue is now with the state land department.
“The DLNR State Historic Preservation Division is actively working with stakeholders to resolve concerns and identify the best treatment for the iwi,” said the agency in a statement.
Last Friday, police arrested three people on beach front property in Wainiha.
Activists say six iwi kūpuna, including a child and baby, had been disturbed during a construction project.
Kauai Police Department says officers were dispatched after reports that several people had been on site for four days.
The arrestees included cultural descendent Megan Wong.
“Kind of like a pimple, where it came to head, they wanted to push forward and dig some more, and that’s where we were trying to draw the line,” said Wong.
The landowner was building a septic system, but Thursday Department of Health issued a stop work order.
“It definitely puts it to a halt. We hope that it actually does stop and they go through the protocols,” said cultural descendent Māhealani Hanie-Grace.
“It was a relief,” said Wong.
“This is ping pong because now it’s in the hands of SHPD,” she added.
Stacy Kealohalani Ferreira, Office of Hawaiian Affairs CEO, told Hawaii News Now she met with the health department’s director Wednesday and called the decision an important step toward protecting iwi kūpuna.
“Things possibly have not been followed based on what the law requires,” said Ferreira.
She says there needs to be more rigorous checks and balances during the permitting process.
“Our kūpuna, we buried our families in the sands and as sea level rise is occurring with climate change and we have this cesspool conversion mandate by the state, we are going to see these inadvertent discoveries occurring more and more,” said Ferreira.
On Thursday, Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami came to the site for music and a meeting on the beach with respected kupuna, police, Wong and other members of the community.
“As government, we clearly have room to improve the permitting process, and help find a way where we can do right for the environment and our host culture,” he said in a statement.
Hawaii News Now reached out to to the property owner Chris Arreguin of Try Slow LLC and we are waiting to hear back.
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