Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 22, Number 6, 1 June 2005 — In for the long haul [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

In for the long haul

Remembrances from a 1991 interview with OHA's longest-serving trustee, the late Moke Keale

/n commemoration of OHA's 25th year, Ka Wai Ola is running a periodic series of reminiscences from people who were part of the agency's creation and early history. This month, we feature excerpts from a 1991 interview with the late Trustee Moses "Moke" Keale. A Ni'ihau-born minister and Hawaiian-language radio personalitv, Keale was elected to OHA's first Board of Trustees in 1980 and served on the board for 19 years before he retired in 1999, making him the longest-serving trustee so far. The interview below was conducted by journalist Curt Sanburn, who wrote a detailed Ka Wai Ola series on OHA's first 10 years. Trustee Keale passed away in May 2000, at the age of62. How woulā you describe OHA's beginning years? Definitely a lot of turmoil, whieh would be the case with any new agency trying to find its way, especially an agency such as OHA. There is no other entity like it in the whole United States - in fact I think I would dare to say in the whole world - so there was no real precedent to follow. Just us nine trustees, with hardly any staff and barely enough money to pay the rent, and we're given the broad mandate of bettering the conditions of all Hawaiians ... it's surprising it didn't sink altogether. We were also the new kid on the hloek among Hawaiian organizations, so nobody was really ready to commit to us politically; I think they were kind of hoping it would just fade away. I don't think anybody took us seriously, basically. That's really the crux of it. How āiā the broader Hawaiian community react? There were two schools of thought, I would say, as to how Hawaiians perceived OHA. One saw OHA as being too radical, always saying: "We want this and that for Hawaiians, and we want it now." There was this kind of sentiment that you don't dare challenge the state government, that if you attack the state, you're attacking America. And then there's the other school, the Hawaiians who said, "Hey, America took our land and did all these injustices to us, so go get 'em." They didn't think we were being radical enough. Then you had the people who sat in the back and said, "They're all crazy!"

Where did your own views fit in to all of this? I guess I was viewed as a conservative on the board, because of my upbringing. In our family, you always respected authority, and you didn't go out and break the laws - not only the law of the land, but also the laws of God and the church. So that would make me very conservative compared to some other members of the board. At that time, for example, I saw the sovereignty movement as nothing short of treason. In my limited view, that's how I perceived it. But eventually you heeame a strong supporter of Hawaiian self-determi-nation. How did that happen ? What happened was that I was exposed to other schools of thought, not only in Hawai'i, but internationally. I attended South Pacific Commission meetings, where you have independent countries coming in, and you're having dialogues with their presidents and prime ministers. Being exposed to Indian nations up on the mainland also broadened my perspective on what sovereignty is all about. Now I believe sovereignty is a right for people to exist. Whal was the biggest issue the board faced at the beginning? It was always the ceded lands revenue. The law stated that OHA would get 20 percent from all ceded-lands ineome, period. But then the state's department directors were allowed to say whether they would pay us or not. And even with the departments that did pay, it was all good-faith money. They'd send us a eheek and we would say thank you, but there was no way to eheek whieh lands paid and whieh ones didn't, and there was no way to really project the ineome or plan for it. Finally, we had to sue the state, and the issue still isn't fully resolved. Whal was the biggest challenge onee the agency finally did get eontrol of substantial trust funds? Basically, we were looking for a more stabilized and professional approach. Like I said, there was no one before us ... even as trustees we had to find out what OHA's niehe really was. We began to realize that you eannot just go out there and say to the beneficiaries: "Here we are, what do you want us to do for you?" You get everything under the sun thrown at you, and pretty soon you're ehoking on it, and you can't get any of it done. Then people start walking

away from you, and to them you heeome the junk guy over there who don't do nothing. So we started shooting less from the hip, and doing more calculated things ... looking at studies and where the needs are. For some of the trustees that were in the mode to say, "Come on, lets get this thing moving," this different attitude slowed the process down, and they weren't too happy about that. For the other ones, they said, yeah, we need this planning. Whal do you think has kept you at OHA longer than any other trustee? It sure as hell ain't the money or the power. Maybe I like punishment. My kids tell me I'm stupid, but this is my answer to them: if my father or grandfather did what we're

doing now, maybe we wouldn't be as messed up as we are today. Somebody, at some point in time, has to take that step. I say: "I'm not doing it for you, my son, but for your son and your grandson and whoever comes after you." I'm in OHA because I see it as the perfect creation to help Hawaiians. OHA has potential that even we trustees have not fully realized. OHA is the political arm of the Hawaiian people. The trustees have this power; it's guaranteed by law, but they have not always seen it or seen fit to use it. OHA may not be the business arm, and not the service arm, maybe, but OHA is the political power of the Hawaiian people.

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