Kānepō will return to Hawai‘i after 20 years
Kadin Mills
ICT
WASHINGTON — Kekuhi Keali‘ikanaka‘ole had made a promise to Kānepō 20 years earlier: that she would return to bring him home. So when she greeted him Monday morning outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, she was overcome with joy and emotion, throwing herself onto the large volcanic stone.
“I felt like a little kid being reunited with my big ‘ole teddy bear, rock, person!” she exclaimed.
The restoration, or return ceremony, that took place after was led by master hula teacher Keali‘ikanaka‘ole, Kanaka ‘Ōiwi and of the fire clan. It served to ceremonially release Kānepō from his duties in preparation for his voyage back to the district of Ka‘ū in Hawai‘i. (Kānepō uses he/him pronouns, according to his Kanaka ‘Ōiwi relatives.)
Kānepō is a basalt lava stone from Ka‘ū, Hawai‘i, and is one of four stones that mark the cardinal directions around the national museum. The others include a cretaceous rock from Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina, quartz from Washington, D.C., acasta gneiss from Yellowknife, Canada. These four stones have guarded over the museum for the last 20 years, representing balance, the four directions as well as the scope of the museum.
Unlike the other three markers, which were given to the museum outright, Kānepō was loaned to the national museum for 20 years. This loan has now expired, and community members say it is time for Kānepō to be reunited with his family in Hawai‘i.
Hawaiian elders and community members, as well as museum administrators greet the first cardinal marker stone, from Argentina, on the south side of the building. (Photo by Kadin Mills, ICT)
Protocols for Kānepō's return ceremony included greeting these stones and giving them an offering of ‘awa, a drink made for medicinal and ceremonial purposes, followed by ritual song and dance inside the museum.
These practices were created specifically for Kānepō's return home by kūpuna, elders, community members, and spiritual leaders. The resulting ceremony draws upon “different types of ceremony that resemble what we needed to do here,” said Kealiʻikanakaʻole in a joint interview with ICT and the museum’s magazine.
The ceremony kicked off the final day of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. This year’s festival celebrated the 20th anniversary of the museum and the 35th anniversary of the National Museum of the American Indian Act by highlighting dozens of Indigenous communities from across the Western Hemisphere.
The museum’s director, Cynthia Chavez Lamar, San Felipe Pueblo, also cut the stone’s umbilical cord. It represented severing Kānepō’s ties to the land he has occupied.
“Our primary kuleana, or responsibility, here was this ceremony today,” Keali‘ikanaka‘ole said. “I think that being in this space with the rest of the world’s Indigenous people fed that. It feeds the soul.”
Kānepō after he was greeted by Hawaiian elders and community members and his umbilical cord severed. He is adorned with a lei made of ferns, as well as necklaces. (Photo by Kadin Mills, ICT)
Kānepō isn’t just any old rock. He is actually the youngest of the four cardinal markers. The stone was born out of the fiery Halema‘uma‘u pit crater in the Kīlauea Caldera atop the notorious volcano of the same name between 300-500 years ago. But part of what makes this stone special is his name and his mana, his spiritual energy.
For many Native Hawaiian community members, the stone is considered a relative — a grandpa.
Keali‘ikanaka‘ole believes the public display is important in demonstrating that the return of Indigenous relatives like Kānepō is important.
“Like my grandmother taught all of us up here,” she said to the crowd, gesturing to her students, “[Kānepō] is family. They are worth making a fuss about.”
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Hula dancers from multiple hālaus, hula schools or groups, came together to honor Kānepō from across the world. Performers traveled to Washington to participate from places such as Hawai‘i, California, Japan, and Michigan. (Photo by Kadin Mills, ICT)
Halena Kapuni-Reynolds, Kanaka ‘Ōiwi, is an associate curator at the museum. He says Native Hawaiian people have a deep spiritual connection to that place. “That space is where our Ohana resides,” he told ICT over the weekend. “We’re not just, we’re related to the elements and the eruptions, but to the landscape itself.”
When the Smithsonian requested a stone from Hawai‘i in 2004 for the national museum in Washington, D.C., some elders were apprehensive to send a relative so far away from home. Many objected, and a compromise was reached instead.
The kūpuna, elders, consultation group at Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park “developed the idea of loaning Kānepō on a 20-year basis,” Kapuni-Reynolds said. This would ensure that both Kānepō would be returned home, and the museum would continue to develop its relationship with and understanding of Native Hawaiian communities.
“We still have some of the elders who came 20 years ago who are still with us, many of whom have been waiting for this moment,” Kapuni-Reynolds added. “So that length of time ensures that the people who were a part of that project are still with us.”
Ahead of departure, Kānepō will be cleaned to remove any contaminants, including moss and lichen, before being packed on July 11. The stone will then undergo a roughly two week long sea voyage to Hawai‘i. Kānepō is expected to return to Hawai‘i in early August, and community members plan to welcome the stone at the docks. The kūpuna consultation group at Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park will determine what protocol will take place to mark his homecoming.
Jessica Ferracane, public affairs specialist at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, told ICT in a statement, “[the park] is excited to welcome Kānepō back to the ʻāina, land. Like the park did in 2004, Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park has worked closely with our Kūpuna consultation group, the Native Hawaiian community, and the National Museum of the American Indian on the protocols surrounding the return of Kānepō.”
And Kānepō’s genealogy will continue, as a new stone from Ka‘ū will take his place at the museum after this stone returns home to his birth place in the national park on the Big Island of Hawai‘i. The new stone will also take on the name Kānepō.
While many Native Hawaiians are happy to see Kānepō return to the island, others don’t want to see him go. But his return is bigger than just bringing a relative home. His voyage sets an important example of how institutions like the Smithsonian can collaborate with Indigenous peoples, according to Keali‘ikanaka‘ole.
Banners on the south side of the National Museum of the American Indian. (Photo by Kadin Mills, ICT)
“We know that there are people, both from the American continent and from Hawai‘i who come to Washington often,” she said. “We know that Kānepō is a destination for them. There have been people who have asked us not to move him.”
Keali‘ikanaka‘ole said she is grateful to all of the people who have visited and loved Kānepō over the last two decades.
“But we have to make good on our promise. And he needs to go home. And there will be another Kānepō from the same area with the same genetic and geological DNA, and it will be as if he has never left. And Kānepō will be in the park! He is gonna be a superstar now, what're you talking about, like now you have to come to Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park to make a visit!”
Kapuni-Reynolds says he hopes sharing Kānepō’s story will lead other Native Hawaiians living on the mainland to see Kānepō as “like an island away from home — a piece of home that they can come to visit when they are in D.C.”
Keali‘ikanaka‘ole will pass on to Kapuni-Reynolds the responsibility of caring for the next Kānepō. He will also help Kānepō make it home in 2044.
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