Opportunity
Federal Register #2026-22145
Notice of intended repatriation of nine Honokōla Gulch cultural items
Posted
October 30, 2026
Identifier
2026-22145
This National Park Service notice concerns the planned return of nine cultural items held by the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, not a purchase of goods or services. - Government buyer and responsible organizations - The National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, issued the notice. - The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum (BPBM) is responsible for the repatriation determinations. - Items involved - Nine unassociated funerary objects, identified as the Honokōla Gulch items, Lots 1–9, collected from Forbes Cave in the Honokōla Gulch Cave Complex on Hawaiʻi Island. - The objects include carved kiʻi (stick images), ʻipu ʻāina (refuse bowls), a feather-cape fragment, a carved female figure, a hair helmet or wig, and a boar-tusk bracelet. - Cultural affiliation and identified organizations - The notice identifies the Mary Kawena Pukui Cultural Preservation Society, ʻOhana Diamond, ʻOhana Kekumano, ʻOhana Keohokalole, ʻOhana Olds, and the Temple of Lono as the Pukui Society Group. - Aloha ʻĀina o Hawaiʻi, Inc. is also identified as culturally affiliated. - The Pukui Society Group is identified as the closest cultural affiliation and the most appropriate requestor. - Commercial scope - No products or services are being purchased, and no vendors, distributors, or OEMs are identified.
Description
The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum intends to repatriate nine cultural items identified as unassociated funerary objects, known as Honokōla Gulch items Lots 1–9. The items include carved figures, refuse bowls, a feather-cape fragment, a hair helmet or wig, and a boar-tusk bracelet; they were collected in 1905 from Forbes Cave in the Honokōla Gulch Cave Complex on Hawaiʻi Island and received by the museum in 1907. The notice identifies cultural affiliations with Native Hawaiian organizations and states that repatriation may occur on or after November 30, 2026. Additional written requests for repatriation may be submitted to the museum’s NAGPRA Coordinator.