The Buzzards in
Bishop Museum
Sightings from The Catbird Seat
~ o ~
August 3, 2007
Timothy E. Johns Named
Bishop Museum President:
International Search Lands Damon Estate Exec
Honolulu, HI Bishop Museum has named Timothy E. Johns as President, Director and Chief Executive Officer, effective October 1, 2007 . The announcement was made today by the Chairman of the Board of Directors, David Hulihe‘e.
Johns succeeds Michael Chinaka who has been serving as Interim President since the departure of William Y. Brown in January 2007. Chinaka will resume his duties as Senior Vice President, Treasurer, and Chief Financial Officer for Bishop Museum . (Brown left the Museum to take a position as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia , PA. )
“I am delighted to announce the appointment of Tim Johns as Bishop Museum ’s new President, Director and CEO,” said David Hulihe‘e, Chairman of Bishop Museum’s Board of Directors. “Tim has over two decades of leadership experience with environmental and cultural issues in Hawai‘i , which will serve well him as the leader of Hawai‘i ’s State museum of natural and cultural history. I couldn’t be more pleased.”
Bishop Museum was founded in 1889. It maintains the world’s largest collection of Hawaiian and Pacific cultural and natural history objects and since its founding has as been a premier institution for research and public education. It is designated as Hawai‘i ’s State Museum of Natural and Cultural History.
Johns most recently served as Chief Operating Officer for the Estate of Samuel Mills Damon, a position he has held since 2000. Prior to that, he was the Chairperson of the State Department of Land and Natural Resources. He has also served as Vice-President and General Counsel for AMFAC Property Development Corporation. He has been a Lecturer in Business Law at the University of Hawai‘i and Windward Community College and has held the position of Director of Land Protection with the Nature Conservancy of Hawai‘i.
An honors graduate of the University of California , Santa Barbara , Johns received a Bachelor’s degree in history and business economics. He also completed a Master’s degree in economics and Juris Doctor from the University of Southern California .
Johns is very active in environmental issues. His memberships include the State of Hawai‘i Board of Land and Natural Resources and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve Advisory Council. A Rotarian, Johns is a member of the Rotary Club of Honolulu.
“With Tim’s impressive background and experience, he will be able to provide critical links between scientists, resource managers and policymakers to advance important biodiversity conservation efforts that are the driving forces for many of our research programs,” says Allen Allison, Ph.D., Vice President of Bishop Museum’s world-renowned Science Department.
Johns serves on the Board of Directors for Grove Farm Company, Inc., Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., YMCA Honolulu, Hawai‘i Nature Center, St. Andrew’s Priory School , Child and Family Services, Helping Hands Hawai‘i, Diamond Head Theatre, and Hawai‘i Public Television Foundation. In June 2005, he was named a Trustee of Parker Ranch Foundation Trust.
“We are delighted the Board of Directors has chosen a candidate with a deep commitment to the preservation and perpetuation of Hawaiian culture and respectful sensitivity to cultural issues. He is well known in the community and is held in high regard, and this will surely be beneficial in many ways,” said Betty Lou Kam, Vice President of Cultural Resources for Bishop Museum .
Johns was selected after a seven-month executive search by the international search organization Morris & Berger from Glendale , California . Founded in 1984, Morris and Berger is a generalist executive search firm that has developed a specialty practice serving the nonprofit sector, including performing and visual arts and institutions of higher learning. The company was named to the list of “50 Leading Search Firms in North America ” in The Executive Recruiter News and also named Outstanding Executive Search Firm in John Lucht’s 1995 edition of Rites of Passage at $100,000+.
Members of the Executive Search Committee included Bishop Museum Trustee Dr. Charman J. Akina (Chairman), David C. Hulihe‘e, Isabella A. Abbott, Ph.D., Haunani Apoliona, H. Mitchell D’Olier, Russell K. Okata, Gulab Watumull, Walter A. Dods, Jr., Allen Allison, Ph.D., and Amy Miller Marvin....
Johns will assume the top leadership position for the largest museum in the State of Hawai‘i in the midst of an unprecedented era of renovation and revitalization. Bishop Museum is presently undertaking a $21 million renovation of its iconic Hawaiian Hall complex with the support of world-class museum designer Ralph Appelbaum and Associates of New York.
In 2005, Bishop Museum opened the Richard T. Mamiya Science Adventure Center , an award-winning $17 million, 19,000-square-foot interactive science and cultural exploration center. Major traveling and cultural exhibitions are presented in the Castle Memorial Building year-round. Bishop Museum hosts nearly 400,000 visitors and students each year. Bishop Museum also administers the Amy B. H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in Captain Cook, Hawai‘i and the Hawaii Maritime Center in Honolulu .
“I am thrilled and honored to be given the opportunity to join this wonderful institution. The Museum has long been one of Hawai‘i ’s most important and cherished treasures. It is blessed with a wonderful staff, great board of directors, and widespread support throughout our community. This is a dream job for me, “ says Timothy E. Johns, newly named President, Director and Chief Executive Officer of Bishop Museum.
http://www.bishopmuseum.org/media/2007/pr07081.html
May 21, 2007
Museum gets climate study grant
Bishop Museum is one of eight institutions worldwide to receive funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to study the impact of climate change on species and habitats.
The foundation awarded $290,000 to the museum over 18 months as part of a $5 million research program to help stem threats of global warming, according to a museum news release.
The grant will be used to assess the vulnerability of biodiversity and island ecosystems in Melanesia to climate change, said Allen Allison, museum vice president of science.
He said the data will be organized in an environmental information system for climate change in Melanesia and posted on the Internet for access to conservation groups worldwide.
The work will be done with the Pacific Regional Environmental Program in Apia, Samoa, and the Honolulu-based Pacific Science Association and Indo-Pacific Conservation Alliance.
Allison said, "The tropics offer some of the most biologically diverse environments in the world and are also among the most vulnerable to climate changes."...
Bishop Museum scientists have done field research in Melanesia for more than 50 years. In their work in recent years, Allison and Fred Kraus have discovered more than 130 new species of frogs, lizards and snakes.
Melanesia is important, the scientists said, because it is the gateway to Polynesia's colonization by plants, animals and people.
http://starbulletin.com/2007/05/21/news/briefs.html
July 14, 2005
Repatriation expert
sues museum
Guy Kaulukukui says that Bishop Museum
asked him to violate federal requirements
By Debra Barayuga, Star-Bulletin
A former Bishop Museum expert on repatriation says he was wrongfully terminated in January 2004 because he refused to violate federal requirements governing the protection and repatriation of sacred burial artifacts.
Guy Kaulukukui, a native Hawaiian educator, filed suit Tuesday in Circuit Court against William Brown, president and chief executive officer of Bishop Museum since 2001, and other unnamed defendants.
The complaint alleged that Brown failed to comply with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act or caused the board or museum staff to violate its spirit and intent on several occasions.
NAGPRA, passed by Congress in 1990, addresses the rights of lineal descendants, Indian tribes and native Hawaiian organizations to human remains and cultural objects.
The complaint also alleges the defendants violated Kaulukukui's rights under Hawaii's Whistleblower Protection Act, which protects employees who report suspected violations of law. Kaulukukui is seeking relief, including reinstatement to his former position and back wages.
Ruth Ann Becker, Bishop Museum spokeswoman, said they had not seen the complaint and could not comment on the allegations. Brown was out of town and not available for comment.
Kaulukukui served several positions since he joined the museum in 1997, including chairman of the Education Department, head of collections and head of cultural studies.
He also chaired the task force that rewrote the museum's NAGPRA policy, which later became nationally recognized by the Association of American Museums as an exemplary prototype, he said.
In 2000, a year before Brown took the helm at Bishop Museum, Kaulukukui was appointed to oversee all repatriation issues, becoming the museum's expert and representative on NAGPRA. Until he was fired, Kaulukukui said, he was involved in four repatriations here and outside Hawaii.
Since Brown took over at Bishop Museum and since Kaulukukui's firing, there have been no repatriations, and Brown has tried to undo two previous repatriations, he said.
"For some reason or another, the museum was moving into a direction toward repatriating as little as possible and interpreting federal law in such a way to protect its collection as much as possible," Kaulukukui said. That is in contravention to NAGPRA's intent to return to native peoples what was taken from them in the first place, he said.
Among the illegal actions Kaulukukui alleges Brown took were invalidating the repatriation of human remains and funerary objects associated with the Kawaihae Caves, relocating of sandstone blocks known as Kalaina Wawae on Molokai, and reneging on a promise to repatriate items removed from Iolani Palace in 1893.
When Brown decided he wanted to undertake a review of the museum's NAGPRA policies, effectively suspending ongoing repatriation efforts, Kaulukukui said he opposed it because it violated federal requirements on the timely processing of claims. He said he refused to sign a letter to the claimant in the ongoing repatriations that explained delays based on untruths and was fired because of it, he said.
A federal review committee found in May 2003 that the museum made a mistake in turning over sacred objects from the Kawaihae Caves to Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawaii Nei, one of 13 claimants who claimed they reburied them. Kaulukukui had defended the repatriation as proper and that they had faithfully complied with federal law.
Hui Malama's actions and its refusal to return the items sparked criticism not only from review committee members, but also from the remaining claimants, who said they never indicated they did not want the items reclaimed from the caves. Requests by the claimants to see the artifacts and verify that they are safe have been refused.
Critics have alleged that the loan was a secret deal between the museum and Hui Malama.
http://starbulletin.com/2005/07/14/news/story8.html
September 9, 2005
Group challenges court
order on artifacts
Hui Malama says the
federal ruling violates its
right to freedom of religion
By Sally Apgar, Star-Bulletin
A federal court order demanding the return of 83 artifacts reburied in a Big Island cave five years ago would violate Hui Malama I Na Kupuna 'O Hawaii Nei's constitutional right to freedom of religion, the native Hawaiian group argued yesterday.
Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge David Ezra gave Hui Malama, a group founded in 1989 to repatriate native Hawaiian remains and artifacts, until Sept. 23 to return the burial items, or "moepu." The group reburied the items in Kawaihae in 2000 to honor the wishes of kupuna (ancestors). Ezra ordered the return so that 14 competing native Hawaiian claimants can have equal say in the fate of the items.
Hui Malama filed an emergency appeal of the order with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco yesterday, arguing, "There is no safe manner by which to carry out the (U.S.) District Court's order as it would place ... members of Hui Malama in real physical and spiritual danger."
In a declaration filed yesterday supporting their argument, Edward Halealoha Ayau, a founding member of Hui Malama, said that complying with the court order "would inflict spiritual, emotional, religious and emotional injury upon me and members of Hui Malama."
"Specifically, it would be an extreme hewa (wrong) for me or any other Hui Malama member, if ordered, to take part in any effort to enter the Kawaihae burial cave, with two to three known caves, to remove the 83 moepu, as they belong to the kupuna buried therein," and that would harm "the integrity of the afterlife of these kupuna," he said.
It "amounts to stealing from the dead, an action that threatens severe spiritual consequences for anyone involved," Ayau added.
Ezra's order arises from a recent case filed by two other native Hawaiian groups against Hui Malama and the Bishop Museum demanding return of the items so that 14 federally recognized native Hawaiian claimants could be consulted in what to do with the items.
In 1905 three men, including David Forbes, whom Hui Malama refer to as grave robbers, opened the cave and gave the items to the Bishop Museum, an act that Hui Malama considers a desecration that they needed to right. In a controversial 2000 "loan," Hui Malama obtained possession of the items.
There is a sharp split in the claimants' groups over whether the items should be buried in the cave to honor kupuna and allowed to decay, or whether they should be preserved in a hermetically sealed environment for the eyes of future native Hawaiian generations.
The two native Hawaiian groups contesting Hui Malama's claim are represented by La'akea Suganuma, a practitioner of "lua," or "bone-breaking," an ancient form of Hawaiian martial arts, who is also president of the Royal Hawaiian Academy of Traditional Arts; and Na Lei Alii Kawananakoa, a group founded by Abigail Kawananakoa, a wealthy Campbell Estate heir and descendent of royal Hawaiian blood.
The 14 competing claimants, including Suganuma, Hui Malama and Kawananakoa, are recognized under the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act, which was passed into law in 1991 to govern the repatriation of native Hawaiian and American Indian remains and artifacts.
When Suganuma and Kawananakoa filed the suit, they asked for a preliminary injunction, demanding the return of the items, saying they were "improperly loaned" to Hui Malama and that they faced "imminent harm" in Kawaihae Caves because of environmental conditions, insect attack and possible theft. Ezra granted the injunction this week.
According to court documents, the 83 items were crated and handed over by museum staff to representatives of Hui Malama on a Saturday in February 2000 with a notation that it was a one-year "loan" until February 2001 and pending the outcome of an ongoing NAGPRA consultation.
Ezra wrote that the museum "breached its own policies in an apparent, but inexplicable, rush to deliver the items to Hui Malama."
In Ezra's order he noted the loan was based on Hui Malama's assurances that all four of the claimants who were recognized at the time agreed to the reburial. Ezra wrote "that premise was false ... because they (the four claimants) did not agree to Hui Malama's ultimate plans."
Aside from spiritual or religious beliefs, Hui Malama has said it does not want to return the items because it would be handing them over to the museum, which they say "acted as a fence for the original grave robbers."
http://starbulletin.com/2005/09/09/news/
August 13, 2004
EDITORIAL
(OUR OPINION)
Wide probe needed
to protect artifacts
FEDERAL investigation of alleged black market trafficking of valuable Hawaiian artifacts that were supposed to have been kept in a Big Island cave raises questions about an organization that has taken the lead in repatriating such artifacts. The government should be unrelenting in finding how the items passed into private hands, prosecuting the thieves to the fullest extent and turning its probe to other possible wayward movements of Hawaiian artifacts.
Artifacts that were taken from the cave in the mid-1800s by Joseph Swift Emerson, a missionary's son, and sold to the Bishop Museum were repatriated in 1997 to Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawaii Nei. The group, which was formed in 1989 for the purpose of such repatriation, was supposed to have put the artifacts in the same burial cave in accordance with ancient protocol.
That activity preceded the 1999 enactment of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which was intended to protect burial remains and sacred objects by returning them to Native American and Hawaiian groups. In response to that law, Bishop Museum secretly "loaned" to Hui Malama 83 artifacts that were taken in 1905 from another Big Island cave by amateur archeologist David Forbes and sold to Bishop Museum two years later.
Hui Malama is headed by lawyer Edward Halealoha Ayau, who once worked at the museum and was former staff counsel to Sen. Daniel Inouye, ranking Democrat on the Senate committee that drafted the NAGPRA legislation. Ayau signed for the 83 Forbes artifacts in February 2000 and said they would be returned to a Big Island burial cave.
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs and other Hawaiian organizations protested being neglected in consideration for the loan. The controversy colored museum director Donald Duckworth's resignation months afterward. Bill Brown, a former Interior Department official who became the museum's director the following year, said the loan was a "mistake" in violation of NAGPRA guidelines.
In response to a complaint by the Royal Hawaiian Academy of Traditional Arts, a National Park Service review committee concluded in May that transfer of the Forbes artifacts to Hui Malama was "flawed" and called for their return to the museum. The question is whether the museum will be allowed to keep them or must repatriate them using the current list of 13 qualifying Hawaiian organizations. Hui Malama has refused to return the artifacts.
Asked about concerns by museum officials and others about whether all 83 of the Forbes artifacts remain in the cave, Ayau told the Star-Bulletin's Sally Apgar, "All the evidence anyone will ever get is our word." The federal investigation, although pertaining only to the Emerson artifacts, indicates that is not enough.
The museum now maintains that it should be regarded as a Hawaiian organization, giving it equal footing with Hui Malama and other such groups to maintain possession of Hawaiian artifacts. The museum's deep Hawaiian roots -- founded in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop as a memorial to his wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop -- warrant such recognition.
Bishop Museum has repatriated more than 2,500 items to Hui Malama and other Hawaiian organizations in the past 14 years. The museum has no intention to keep human remains, but some objects properly belong in a museum, protected against deterioration and theft.
January 7, 2003
Museum wants
ancient bones removed
By Debra Barayuga, Star-Bulletin
Claimants of iwi, or remains of native Hawaiians, that were excavated at Mokapu on the Kaneohe Marine Corps Base during the 20th century are unhappy over the Bishop Museum's recent efforts to return the bones to them when reinterment plans are not yet final.
"I'm just very disappointed the Bishop Museum has chosen to do this and didn't allow us to work this out," said Linda Kawai'ono Delaney, of the Prince Kuhio Hawaiian Civic Club, one of 22 groups that have laid claim to the iwi based on cultural or family relations.
Bishop Museum filed a complaint in Circuit Court yesterday asking the court to authorize a party to receive the iwi, referred to as the "Mokapu collection," and that the museum be absolved from any liability related to the disposition of the collection.
The complaint said Bishop Museum cannot determine to which of the groups the collection belongs.
Ruth Ann Becker, Bishop Museum spokeswoman, said the remains were never in the possession of the museum, but belong to the 20-plus groups that claimed an interest in them under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
The claimants had asked Bishop Museum -- and they entered into a loan agreement in August 1999 -- to store the bones until they decide on their final resting place. The agreement drawn by the claimants was for no longer than three years and expired January 2001, but was extended by the claimants.
Despite repeated requests, the claimants have not removed the collection from Bishop Museum. "We need for there to be a final decision on where they will go and move them out of here," Becker said.
The complaint is a "procedural thing to get it moving along so we can free up the space," and not a contentious move on Bishop Museum's part, she said.
But claimants say they have no place to put the bones at this time and are working with Marine Corps Base Hawaii officials to decide where and how they will be reinterred. Also, before the iwi are reinterred, cultural rituals need to take place.
Delaney said Bishop Museum began notifying them in May and August last year to take possession of the collection from Bishop Hall so that the building can be renovated.
"We're aware that they've been patient with us, but for almost 150 years, they've held those ancestors and always had space when they wanted to study them," she said, adding that this has been a very difficult repatriation.
Delaney said they recently sent letters to Marine Corps officials that they have agreed on a reinterment site and should be renewing meetings with them soon.
They have asked the Marine Corps for permission to move the bones to the base.
"Just be patient," Delaney told Bishop Museum. "This is something that has to be done. They have to be given a dignified reinterment."
http://starbulletin.com/2003/01/07/news/index11.html
# # #
TO BE CONTINUED...
In the meantime, you can browse through the following as you’re having your breakfast birdseed and watching the sunrise over the golf course in Maunawili Valley:
A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING KAMEHAMEHA’S COURT
CONFESSIONS OF A WHISTLEBLOWER
DIRTY MONEY, DIRTY POLITICS & BISHOP ESTATE
FARMER VS. HARMON - WITNESS: HILLARY CLINTON
FLYING HIGH IN HAWAII: THE SAGA OF RON REWALD
THE CONSUELO ZOBEL ALGER FOUNDATION
THE GRAND (and dirty) KO OLINA
CENSORED > THE HARMON ARBITRATION < CENSORED
THE HAWAII COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
MARSH & MCLENNAN: THE MARSH BIRDS
OFFICE OF THE U.S. TRUSTEE vs. HARMON
THE SILENCE OF THE WHISTLEBLOWERS
THE VULTURES IN MAUNAWILI VALLEY
~ ~ ~
~ o ~
MORE OF THE CATBIRD’S FAVORITE LINKS
~ o ~
FAIR USE NOTICE. This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Last Update June 14, 2008, by The Catbird