CASE STUDY
University Students Gain Hands-On Preservation Experience through Partnerships with NPS, HOPE Crew, and the ACHP Kalaupapa National Historical Park, Hawaii | Grand Teton National Park,Wyoming
Fourteen Native Hawaiian students from the University of Hawaii at Hilo participated in a preservation workshop and cultural immersion program run by the HOPE (Hands-On Preservation Experience) Crew program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, in partnership with the National Park Service (NPS) at Kalaupapa National Historical Park (NHP) in March 2020. Kalaupapa NHP, located on the island of Moloka’i in Hawaii, encompasses an isolated peninsula where approximately 8,000 individuals, mostly Native Hawaiians, were sent from 1866 to 1969 because they had contracted Hansen’s disease (leprosy). The park includes the Kalaupapa National Historic Landmark District and became a national park system unit in 1980. Approximately 1,200 gravestones on the peninsula mark the final resting places of persons exiled there. The students learned about the cultural significance of the site while performing important preservation work by gently cleaning all known grave markers with instruction from preservation trades experts. The students also explored the history and cultural and ancestral significance of the Kalaupapa peninsula. They followed protocols for acknowledging ancestors buried there, in accordance with Hawaiian tradition and with the guidance of Park Cultural Anthropologist Ka’ohulani McGuire.The students’ work helps ensure the gravestones will continue to share the legacies of the men, women, and children
University of Hawaii students working on the HOPE Crew project (NTHP)
Right: Kalaupapa National Historical Park (NPS) Below: HOPE Crew members clean grave markers at Papaloa Cemetery (NPS)
38 | IN A SPIRIT OF STEWARDSHIP: A REPORT ON FEDERAL HISTORIC PROPERTY MANAGEMENT 2021
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