Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 2, Number 3, 1 March 1985 — Stealing Our Aina [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Stealing Our Aina

By Moanikeala Akaka Trustee, Hawaii

The unfair Hilo, Waimea, Molokai Airports land swap proposed between the Departments of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) and Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) is just a contiunation of Hawaiian aina being ripped off . Other implications of this bad precedent could be the beginning of the statemoving to eliminate the ceded

land trust that benefits not on!y the Office of Hawaiian Affairs who receives 20 percent of the revenues as dictated by the State Legislature, but up to 80 percent of total revenues could go to the public school system as in the case of Shafter Flats. We Hawaiians cannot afford to lose the $52,000 a year OHA will forfeit and judging by recent news interviews with the Rev. Darrow Aiona, Chairman of the Board of Education, the public school system cannot afford to lose these ceded land assets either. Another indication of more rip off to us Hawaiians is the big "to do" about Governor Ariyoshi giving back 28,000 acres of Hawaiian land to DHHL. After all, he is not giving us this !and, it is already Hawaiian land. He is returning our aina. Yet the Governor upon announcing the return of our land stated, "It would be unfair to the taxpayers to pay back rent" to us native Hawaiians. The state also doesn't intend to pay rent on

these lands for the next two or more years. If we Hawaiians are not able to pay rent or mortgage, we are out on the street or forced to live on the beach whieh is the dilemma many of our families face today . Just watch the news and see — Hawaiian families are forced to live in tents on the beach because of laek of affordable housing. Do you think it fair for Governor Ariyoshi to insist on no back rent, present or future, for the next few years for these 28,000 acres returned? Consider what our people are going through. The state is initiating a bill in this legislature to put a moratorium on royalties for geothermal for the next eight years. Royalties to geothermal are part of our ceded land resources, so this again will be benefits OHA and the public schools system will lost out on. These revenues are mueh needed for survival programs for native Hawaiians and public schools at a time when President Reagan is making more cuts for minorities, poor people and education. All of these incidents, includingtrading the one-half million dollars now received on the airports for half as mueh received for Shafter Flats, minus whatever OHA now receives there, appears as though the state is trying to prevent us native Hawaiians from collecting these benefits we rightfully, legally and morally deserve. How long are we going to allow these injustices to be perpetuated against us as we continue to struggle for survival in this our own homeland! Remember what Pope John Paul said to the Mesquite Indians of Peru several weeks ago: "Fight for your trees, your land and your culture." Ua mau ke ea o ka'aina i ka pono. Malama Pono.