Boston Children's Museum to Repatriate Sacred Native Hawaiian Objects Under NAGPRA
The Boston Children's Museum has agreed to repatriate eight sacred Native Hawaiian objects following a request from Hui Iwi Kuamoʻo, a Hawaiian organization. The items include two wooden bowls, a water container, a traditional Hawaiian octopus lure, a bowling stone ('Ulu Maika), a tapa beater (I'e Kuku), a net holder for a bowl (Koko), and a poi pounder (Pōhaku Ku'i 'Ai). This repatriation is being conducted under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), a federal law passed by Congress in 1990. NAGPRA mandates that institutions receiving federal funding, such as museums and universities, return ancestral remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and other culturally significant items to lineal descendants, Native American tribes, and Native Hawaiian groups. The museum's president and CEO, Melissa Higgins, stated that the museum honored the request after reviewing the organization's detailed background context, acknowledging that they are not the arbiters of what is culturally ... 
