Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 5, 1 May 1990 — The issue is sovereignty [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The issue is sovereignty

This article represents the views of OHA Trustees Moses K. Keale Sr., Manu Kahaialii and Louis Hao. The year was 1978. It was a hot summer. The Constitutional Convention was in full swing and the drama slowly unfolded. Life was being created. This life hung in a delicate halanee for several months and then in November, 1978, history was made. Hanau ia he keiki! A child was born to the Hawaiian people. This chiid was called the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. It was a struggle bringing life and growth to this child. The growing pains were great ,There were stumbles and falls but the child picked itself up and went on. We, you and I, were a part of this season of growth. We, you and I, helped to nurture this child and to see its needs. We sco)ded when it was wrong and praised when it was good. Programs eame into its life and some of those programs left. People entered its life and people departed. And still the child grew. Then in 1988 the child marked its coming of age. In an event that many said could never be done, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs sponsored the event called Ho'olokahi — Unity Day for all Hawaiians. Fifty-five thousand Hawaiians eame together in a show of unity and pride that day and OHA has never been the same. Our child became an adult and the adult struck out to venture into a new world. From the people eame power and commitment. All of Hawai'i saw that OHA was the leader of the Hawaiian people. The above scenario is just one interpretation of the life of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. OHA has been like a child growing into adulthood. The struggle has been real, the hurts deep, and joys exhilarating. The closing of 1989 signaled the birth of a new decade, a new era in the life of this office. 1990 has brought us a first step settlement with the state in the claiming of our rights as Hawaiians to the revenues of the ceded lands trust. This settlement is for the native Hawaiian who has waited so long for his entitlements. We will enter into further negotiations with the state for the rights of the Hawaiian. We will pursue this with vigor and tenacity until justice is done. Further, we will enter into negotiations with the federal government for the entitlements due to all Hawaiians as a result of the injustice of the government's actions against our ali'i. When the dust is settled and justice is aeeomplished, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs will emerge standing tall for the Hawaiian people. But what must we recognize in order to aeeomplish this mission? We must supportour child, this child of our creation. We must recognize that OHA is our office, our government entity, our people's trust, our business entity. When we receive the assets we win from the state, we will plaee it in the OHA Trust to be managed by responsible people for the benefit of the proper beneficiary. If this means we must create two trusts, one for the native Hawaiian and one for the Hawaiian, then we shall do just that. . Our government entity will continue to demand

from the state quality education for the Hawanan, equal employment and business opportunities, and all such rights guaranteed to us as taxpayers and citizens of this state and nation. We will monitor health services and housing needs and make demands for improvements of such services from the state and nation. We will eonhnue to create and provide needed service programs for our people. Our OHA business entity could open new doors to increased ineome in order to support greater services to our people. We ean become involved with the businesses of our community, state and nation. We ean become involved with international business communities and governments. But most important we ean exert our influence in the business, government and social life of this our homeland so that it will truly reflect the vision of the kind of Hawai'i we wish to raise our children in. Recently, we took the issues of the entitlements bill to our Hawaiian people. There was mueh cortfusion. There were many questions. There is still mueh to be done. But out of that confusion eame a message that was clear. The governor's negotiating team told us and our people that OHA was a state agency unlike any state agency in the State of Hawai'i. In fact, we were told, it is an agency unlike any agency in any state in the nation. OHA has autonomy they said. OHA does not fall under the Office of the Govemor like all other state agencies. It is not a part of his cabinet with appointed commissioners like the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. Its budgets are not controlled by the governor's office. Its trusteesare not appointed by the judiciary like Bishop Estate. It derivesits direction and mission by order of its elected trustees who are answerable directly to the Hawaiian people. It has its own electorate separate from the electorate of the state. They told us that it was this entity that the governor negotiated a settlement with. The recognition of OHA's autonomy by the highest office in the State of Hawai'i is very significant. This clearly establishes the case of the state government recognizing the status of OHA as having the right and duty to negotiate on behalf of the Hawaiian people. We shall take this newly established recognition to Washington, D.C., to elaim our right to meet with Congress and to entertain a settlement on behalf of the Hawaiian people. When we introduced the Blueprint for Entitlements last summer, our critics in the Hawaiian community said that we were in conflict of interest. They said that we were a state agency and could only be expected to act in the best interest of the state anei not the Hawaiian people. Our critics said that what we were proposing in the Blueprint was the kuleana of some independent organization who had sovereignty and not the purview of a state agency. Today, we propose to you that we have established, through our actions, a type of autonomy that certainly preempts us from being a state agency as our critics have claimed.

We further propose that this autonomy and the recognition of this state of autonomy brings us to a form of sovereignty. This may not be the best solution but it is a working solution. Why should we try to re-invent the wheel? OHA has its own governing body, elected by the Hawaiian people. We have our own administration answerable to that elected body and the people it serves. We have recognition by the State of Hawāi'h' We hav/^ jurisdiction and standing. Let us ndCwhftrfor'}^Viy, many years for some other body to be recognized! Let us use what we have now and make it work for us! Let'sform a partnership. Let us work together! Let's get our benefits now and begin to enjoy these benefits. A i manao kekahi e lilo i pookela i waena o oukou, e pono no e lilo ia i kauwa no oukou. Na ke Akua e malama a e alakai ia kakou apau.

Moses K. Keale Sr. Trustee: Kaua'i/Ni'ihau

Manu Kahaialii Trustee: Maui

Louis Hao Trustee: Moloka'i