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Headstones overturned at Kawaiahaʻo Church cemetery

By George F. Lee and Cindy Ellen Russell

July 3, 2019

1/18
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Video by George F. Lee / glee@staradvertiser.com
More than 20 headstones at the Kawaiahaʻo Church cemetery were knocked from their pedestals sometime early Wednesday morning, angering and upsetting those whose families are buried there.
2/18
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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM

Visitors to Kawaiahaʻo Church cemetery in downtown Honolulu on Wednesday were visibly shaken at the sight of a number of headstones that had been toppled earlier.
3/18
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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM

More than 20 headstones knocked off their pedestals at the Kawaiahaʻo Church graveyard were toppled either late Tuesday night or early Wednesday. A number of visitors there and descendants were visibly upset. Here, Yvonne Jinbo stood near the resting place of a relative.
4/18
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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM

“It’s so disgusting,” said Yvonne Jinbo, whose great great-grandparents, William and Esther Brede’s, gravestone marking their deaths in 1910 and 1914 respectively, had been severed from its stone pedestal at Kawaiahaʻo Church cemetery on Wednesday, lying face up.
5/18
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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM

”It’s part of my routine to walk by and say hello,” said Yvonne Jinbo, whose eyes filled with tears on Wednesday. She looked over from her office across Punchbowl Street, when she heard the news and could tell the headstone at Kawaiahaʻo Church cemetery was down and ran over to check.
6/18
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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM

Many of the overturned headstones at Kawaiahaʻo Church cemetery on Wednesday date back to the early 1900s, with dates of death engraved as early as 1900. Some were face down and could not be read.
7/18
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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM

Kawaiahaʻo Church, built from massive, hewn blocks of white coral, is the first Christian church built on Oahu, and Hawaiian culture and language continue to be perpetuated there, according to its website.
8/18
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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM

As news spread of the desecration at Kawaiahaʻo Church cemetery on Wednesday, people trickled into the cemetery, hugging one another and crying.
9/18
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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM

Hoku DeFeo, 42, of Pearl City, got emotional looking for her great great-grandparents’ gravestone at Kawaiahaʻo Church cemetery on Wednesday, and was relieved to find it untouched.
10/18
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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM

“I’m just disappointed in our community for doing something like this,” Hoku DeFeo said Wednesday at Kawaiahaʻo Church cemetery. “It might be one or two individuals, but we need to hold one another responsible.”
11/18
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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM

Hoku DeFeo's 7-year-old daughter, Emmalia, is named after DeFeo’s great-great-grandmother Emily Nohoua, who is buried at the Kawaiahaʻo Church cemetery. The child placed plumeria around her grave marker on Wednesday. Here, she looks at the toppled gravestones nearby.
12/18
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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM

Headstones knocked off their pedestals, some uprooted, others lying face down were seen Wednesday at Kawaiahaʻo Church cemetery in downtown Honolulu.
13/18
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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM

The Kawaiahaʻo Church grounds also include a mausoleum for King Lunalilo and the graves of prominent Christian missionary families. The church, the Mission Houses, Lunalilo’s tomb and the cemetery comprise the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site, a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
14/18
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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM

Kawaiahaʻo Church is now discussing the process of how to repair the headstones which were vandalized and knocked off their pedestals on Wednesday. This is the scene on Friday.
15/18
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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM

On Friday, Jonah Aipa, 3, joined his grandmother, Ka'anohi Aipa, to pay their respects to those whose headstones were overturned at the Kawaiahaʻo Church cemetery. The Aipas have ancestors buried at the cemetery although their graves were not affected by vandalism.
16/18
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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM

The gates to the Kawaiahaʻo Church cemetery remained open and accessible to the public Friday, three days after vandals are believed to have knocked headstones from their pedestals in a crime that left family members distraught.
17/18
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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM

Kawaiahaʻo Church has received a surge of community support after Wednesday's incident.
18/18
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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM

The toppled headstone of Hoopii Malalea, wife of Parker Andrew Cummings, with lei placed upon it at Kawaiahaʻo Church cemetery on Friday.
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