Having retrieved 22 iwi po'o, or Hawaiian skulls, from Stockholm's antiquities museum over the weekend, a Native Hawaiian delegation arrived in Boston yesterday to take possession of eight more from Harvard University's anatomical collection, William Aila, the group's spokesman said last night.

"We'll be repatriating eight more of what we call iwi kupuna," Aila said from Boston. "So, we'll have 22 from Sweden and eight from Harvard, for a total of 30 Hawaiians that we're rescuing and returning home."

The repatriation of indigenous remains is part of an increased worldwide effort among institutions to return human remains collected by scientists during previous centuries.

Like the Stockholm remains looted from Native Hawaiian burials, the Harvard po'o will be prayed over in a symbolic ritual before being returned to Hawai'i tomorrow, Aila said.

"Once we get home, we're going to finish ceremoniously rewrapping them, and then we will take the additional task of reburying them," he said.

That ceremony will include wrapping the bones in kapa cloth made from tree bark and placing them in what's known as a hína'i, or lauhala basket.

Some will be reburied on the Big Island, while others will be reburied on other Neighbor Islands, Aila said.

"We know where most of them came from," he said. "There are several we do not have enough information about to make that determination."

Aila praised Swedish officials for their handling of the sensitive matter of handing over the Hawaiian remains, and said he believed the people at Harvard would do likewise.

"The people in Sweden were absolutely marvelous," he said. "The government used the words we use at home: 'These kupuna (or ancestors) were looted from their graves.' "

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.