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The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is quietly trying to take over stewardship of Mauna Ala, the burial place of Hawaiian Royalty, after the state agency currently managing the area made a controversial appointment of a new curator in May that upset many in the Native Hawaiian community.

OHA held a confidential meeting Friday afternoon with representatives of the four Native Hawaiian trusts, commonly referred to as the alii trusts, that today wield tremendous wealth and power in the islands.

The meeting raised the question of whether the state Department of Land and Natural Resources is the right agency to manage one of Hawaii’s most sacred places, according to sources with knowledge of the meeting.

Mauna Ala, also known as the Royal Mausoleum State Monument, is the final resting place of the Kamehameha and Kalakaua dynasties. Transferring stewardship authority would give OHA one of the most prominent symbols of the Hawaiian monarchy.

In a written statement, OHA Chairwoman Carmen Hulu Lindsey said that OHA was disappointed with DLNR’s curator selection process and felt compelled to begin discussion on how Mauna Ala can be stewarded in the future.

“As the current steward of Kūkaniloko and other sacred wahi pana (sacred places), we believe that OHA has both the administrative capacity and cultural competence that DLNR does not possess,” Lindsey said.

DLNR Director Dawn Chang said in an interview that she is proud of the work the state parks division and the alii trusts have accomplished in managing Mauna Ala. Chang said she met with OHA officials about two weeks ago to talk about the possible transfer.

Chang said Mauna Ala was removed from the public land trust before statehood, making the transfer of its lands much more complicated than other properties the state owns.

She said DLNR has not yet committed to supporting a transfer, and told OHA that there needs to be a broader discussion in the community before any transfer moves forward.

“No decision has been made or can be made in the absence of much greater conversations with both the governor as well as the alii trusts, Hawaiian community and public at large,” Chang said.

OHA needs the support of the alii trusts to move forward. The trusts, which hold billions of dollars in assets intended to benefit Native Hawaiians, have paid for the upkeep of the Royal Mausoleum since at least 2014, when DLNR entered a formal agreement with those trusts to help finance renovation projects.

The trusts include Kamehameha Schools, which focuses on education, the Queen Liliuokalani Trust for children, the Lunalilo Trust for the elderly and the Queen Emma Trust for medical care. The Abigail K.K. Kawananakoa Foundation has also paid for Mauna Ala improvements. Representatives from each of the trusts as well as OHA trustees Carmen Hulu Lindsey and Kalei Akaka were invited to attend the meeting Friday.

The office is seeking a collaboration with the trusts and has proposed co-stewarding Mauna Ala with those entities, according to an email that OHA CEO Stacy Ferreira sent to representatives of the trusts last week.

The discussions on Friday were described as preliminary. And it’s still not yet clear what sort of agreement, if any, would materialize and who would be financially responsible for the monument.

No decisions were made during the meeting, and representatives of the trusts went back to their respective boards to further discuss what entity should manage Mauna Ala. The plan is for all of the trusts to come together at a later date to voice their collective opinion on the future stewardship of Mauna Ala, the sources said. 

The appointment of the latest curator appears to have reignited the debate over what entity is best equipped to manage Mauna Ala.

In May, DLNR of Doni Chong to be the new curator. That upset many because the curators traditionally have been selected from descendants of those who helped bury the remains of Kamehameha I, .

Chong, who is not one of those lineal descendants, previously worked for Hawaiian Electric and nonprofit Keiki O Ka Aina. She was a candidate for the House in 2020.

Before Chong, the last director was Kai Maioho, who took over the job after his father, William Maioho, died in 2015. The elder Maioho’s mother held the curator position from 1966 to 1994.

OHA asked DLNR to halt the selection process and consult with the Native Hawaiian community, .

Instead, DLNR and Gov. Josh Green announced in June that the state would create a separate whose precise job duties would be explored with Native Hawaiian leaders. The curator would instead be responsible for upkeep of the grounds and opening and closing the monument.

It’s also not clear how authority over Mauna Ala would be transferred from DLNR to OHA.

The Royal Mausoleum was built in 1865, and DLNR, through its parks division, has overseen the burial place since 1967. The crypts and tombs at Mauna Ala house more than 50 royals and some of their close advisers. The last person to be buried there was Abigail Kawananakoa, who died in December 2022.

This isn’t the first attempt to move management of Mauna Ala away from DLNR. In 2017, state lawmakers introduced resolutions asking DLNR to form a working group that would to “one or more appropriate non-profit organizations.”

Kamehameha Schools, which is now engaged in the discussions about transferring authority to OHA, testified in support of the transition efforts in 2017.

Hailama Farden, who is currently OHA’s senior director of Hawaiian cultural affairs, also on behalf of the Hawaiian Royal Societies supporting the 2017 resolution.

Farden is also a former Kamehameha Schools employee.