Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 2, Number 12, 1 December 1985 — Telling it Like it is ... [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Telling it Like it is ...

Kamaki A. Kanahele III, new administrator for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, told it like it is to delegates, guests and members attending the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs convention on Maui that "without hesitation, I am an administrator who doesn't like to beat around the bush." It was Kanahele's first home appearance before an organized group since his app>ointment Nov. 5 by the OHA Board of Trustees to succeed the retired T.C. Yim (See appointment story this issue.) A break in the morning proceedings of the Nov. 9 session was called by OHA Trustee and convention delegate Gard Kealoha to introduce the new OHA administrator. Kanahele, assuredly a surprise guest at the convention, was given a

warm and loud standing ovation as he took the podium to say a few words. Kanahele, fluent in the Hawaiian language, opened his brief remarks by first "thanking my mother, Mrs. Agnes Cope and my father, George Herbert Cope and the privilege to see my sister, Kuulei Auhoon and brother, Kaniela Kanahele," both of whom were sitting in a corner of the convention room. He said he had been busy traveling between Salt Lake City and Seattle, Wash., from his Washington, D.C. office when the announcement was made of his appointment during his National Education Conference in Seattle. "I would like to begin by first of all telling you that ^ne of the main reasons I stand here today is to thank the Nanaikapono Hawaiian Civic Club for the three years of scholarship that they had given me to the church's college" (Church College of Hawaii at Laie known today as Brigham Young UniversityHawaii Campus.) Kanahele, who becomes the third OHA Administrator in

the five years of the organization since it was established by the 1978 State Constitutional Convention, thanked his two precedessors, Eddie Auld and Yim, and Ben Henderson, who served as acting administrator for eight months. "I thank them so very mueh for bringing the organization along. It gives me great pleasure to also say Mahalo nui loa to the Board of Trustees of OHA for bringing me home from Washington, D.C. to be their new Administrator," Kanahele said. In reiterating his statement he "doesn't beat around the bush," the new Administrator added: "I would also like to tell you that I plan on starting everything all over again from scratch and getting it straight and to

make sure that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs complete its mandate and its obligations to our people of Hawaii. "I would also like to tell you, members of the Hawaiian Civic Clubs of this state and the state of California . . . that the pilikia I see is a grave one. The statistics in Washington, D.C. read that the native Hawaiian population is approximately 58.2 percent under the age of 21 and there are very few sitting here today." He pledged "to you all that I will make sure that OHA, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, will strengthen your organizations by calling on our youth to eome and join you, to eome and be your present and your future. It is a need and a necessity." Kanahele called on his audience to "join me, join the board; because it is through them and through me that we will complete our love and our obligations to our people and our children." "Remember me, Kamaki Kanahele. I serve you!"

Kamaki A. Kanahele III acknowledges warm applause of weleome from those attending Hawaiian Civic Club convention. Visible to his left front row are Benson Lee, president of the Associat ion of Hawaiian Civic Clubs; Arthur Hoke, parliamentarian; Candace Hurley, recorder; Irma Farden, treasurer; and Rep. Whitney Anderson, immediate past president.