STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2200

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 320

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 320 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO NATIVE HAWAIIAN BURIALS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require Native Hawaiian remains in the possession of the State whose provenience is unknown, or in other special circumstances, to be reinterred annually on the island of Kaho‘olawe.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from one individual.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana.

     Your Committee finds that the State is in possession of numerous Native Hawaiian remains with unknown origins.  Because the State does not know where these remains originated and there is no policy or rule dictating where they should be reinterred, the remains are languishing in storage facilities.  Your Committee finds that these remains should be respectfully reinterred as soon as possible but understand that many Native Hawaiian advocacy groups have significant concerns regarding the reinterment process.

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by deleting its contents and inserting language to:

     (1)  Establish a working group to create a process to select and reinter Native Hawaiian remains in the possession of the State, whose provenience is unknown, or in other special circumstances, on the island of Kaho‘olawe; and

     (2)  Make technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 320, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 320, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs,

_____________________________

MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair