Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 1, Number 1, 1 February 1984 — from the Chairman's Desk [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

from the Chairman's Desk

By Joseph Kealoha OHA Chairman, Maui Trustee

Beginning with this issue, and for the next several months, Ka Wai Ola OOHA will be published every month instead of quarterly as in the past. Ka Wai Ola is the Office's chief means of communicating with our beneficiaries. lt is mailed to approximately 45,000 households in whieh there are one or more voters who were registered to vote in the last OHA election. An additional 5,000 copies are distributed through various government offices and by our Community Resource Specialists on all islands. In addition to increasing the frequency of publication, you will notice a number of significant changes in.the newspaper itself. These include switching to a "maga-zine-tabloid" format, a newly designed masthead, shorter and more informative stories, larger photos and more readable headline types. The Board of Trustees recognized that a monthly publication was necessary in order to keep our beneficiaries informed about, and current with, several vital issues affecting native Hawaiians during the next several months. They include the legal challenges to OHA's constitutionality by Hawaii's

Attorney General and the refusal of the State Administration to turn over revenues to whieh we are entitled according to the Admission Act, State law and Hawaii's constitution. These funds are earmarked for the Hawaiian people and OHA is mandated to administer them to improve the condition of Hawaiians. Other important issues whieh we will be covering during the next few months include the proposal to increase the number of Hawaiians eligible for various programs by defining a Hawaiian as anyone with any amount of Hawaiian blood. We also will be keeping a close watch on the forthcoming Congressional hearings on recommendations by the Native Hawaiians Study Commission. Among the recommendations of the Hawaiian commissioners is for some form of restitution or reparations for the part played by the United Stategovernment in the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893. We hope you like our new format and the more frequent publication of Ka Wai Ola. 1 would be most interested in any comment you may have about the newspaper. Just drop me a line here at OHA, 567 S. King St., Honolulu, Hawaii96813.