Germany to return ancestral remains to Hawaii from museums

BERLIN (AP) — The body overseeing Berlin’s museums says it will hand over Hawaiian ancestral remains collected by a German naturalist in the 19th century to authorities in Hawaii. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation said Monday that the remains of 32 individuals, known as “iwi kupuna,” will be handed over Friday to a representative of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Germany’s culture minister says that “human remains from colonial contexts have no place in our museums and universities” and returning them must be a priority. Most of the bones are probably several hundred years old and were collected from a beach at Waimanalo on Oahu island.