Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 1, Number 9, 1 November 1984 — IPI Delegates Support OHA's Efforts [ARTICLE]

IPI Delegates Support OHA's Efforts

Several OHA trustees recently returned f'rom Warm Springs, Ore., where they participated in the third annual gathering of the Indigenous Peoples lnternational (IPI), an organization formed in 1981 to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and information among the governing bodies representing various and indigenous groups.

The three-day symposium at the K.ah-Nee-Ta Resort on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation was hosted by the United States and included delegations from the New Zealand Department of Maori Affairs, Australian Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Canadian Department of Indian Affairs, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The Hawai'i delegation was headed by OH A Board Chairman Joseph Kealoha and included trustees Piilani Desha, Moses Keale and Gard Kealoha.

At the meeting, Chairman Kealoha had an opportunity to present the Ceded Lands slide show, to the 60 participants in attendance. Although the ĪPI is an information sharing body and no official positions are adopted, the slide show was an effective tool in helping the various delegations to gain a better understanding and insight into our history and some of the major issues and concerns currently confronting the Hawaiian people.

Numerous expressions of support forOHA's efforts to obtain reparations from the federal government were received from the tribal leaders who saw the presentation. The first meeting of the IPI, held in Wellington, New

Zealand, in 1981, focused on an examination of the Maori situation. OHA was privileged to host the second gathering in Honolulu in 1982, where the eultural, eeonomie and political conditions of the Hawaiian people were examined by the conference delegates. This third generation of the IPI centered on the American Indian situation. Not surprisingly, American Indians possess many of the same social and eeonomie needs as other indigenous peoples. The need for better quality education, more jobs, adequate housing and improved health care still exist among many of the more than 300 federally-recognized tribes in the U.S.

Politically, although Indian tribes enjoy a limited degree of sovereignty as "wards" of the federal government under the Bureau of Indian Affairs, there are many tribes whieh feel that the BI A continues to be too involved in their internal affairs. Indian tribes throughout the nation are therefore striving to attain greater self-determination and to protect their native rights. They are also attempting to become more selfsufficient through the development of their natural resources and the pursuit of other eeonomie ventures.

The symposium enabled the Hawai'i delegation to share some important Hawaiian issues with the other delegations, to learn more about problems confronting our Amenean Indian brothers, and to renew and strengthen our relationship with other indigenous groups. The Australian delegation has tentatively offered to host the next IPI Conference in 1985.