Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 9, 1 September 1986 — Reelection Bid Out [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Reelection Bid Out

By Poka Laenui (Hayden Burgess Trustee, Oahu)

Thank you for permitting me to act as your trustee these past years. I shall miss the ability to share a monthly thought with you through these columns, the opportunities to meet with my eonstituents and the people of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. I will not seek the nosition I vacate in this up-

coming election. During my past campaign, I promoted simply one theme: Hawaiian independence. Today, however slow our progress may have appeared at times, I submit we have taken a giant step toward that goal. We are breaking down mueh of the psychological barriers so that people are no longer afraid to use words such as "independence," "sovereignty" or "self-determination." Nationhood is spoken of openly in many different corners of Hawaii. People are beginning to understand that self-determination does not have to mean kings and

queens ruling us; or that we must all go back to the taro patches, grass houses and hukilaus; or any other returning to the past. People are understanding that nationhood does not portend a racial war, not a struggle within a single race according to blood quantum. Instead, we are finally realizing that nationhood speaks of the kama'aina whose allegiance is to Hawaii, governing ourselves; controlling our resources, our eeonomie development, our lifesty!es, our cultural and moral foundations; chosing our partners in the world and exercising all other aspects of self-determination as we see fit. The simplicity and sensibility of nationhood is being understood. Hand in hand with this drive toward nationhood, is

the further understanding that the po'e Hawaii deserves a special role in the nation. It is from the po'e Hawaii that the cultural foundation of the nation has developed. It has been through us, the originators and keepers of Aloha, that the fabric of the Hawaiian society has been woven. And it is a specia! right that must be respected; a right of our native race to exist and have our plaee in our homelands to be ourselves. There is division over nationhood only when there is misunderstanding. Now that people are more willing to consider the Hawaiian nation, the methods of interacting among one another will be better and more widely understood.

No one, no single organization or "movement", ean elaim singular credit for this progress. Rather, many of us, who have had the opportunity to stand upon the shoulders of our ancestors and kupuna all whom have guided as in this endeavor, have been responsible for this progress. For myself, 1 anticipate the near future will bring continuing opportunities to move closer to independenee. At times opportunities eome in strange disguises. One may be in the disguise of a enminal charge for my refusal to pay taxes to the invader.

Even more opportunities will arise as I continue in my internationa! work through the Wor!d Oouneil of Indigenous Peoples. Already, we have made inroads with the United Nations and other international bodies. Therefore, do not mistake my departure from OHA as a giving up or retirement from our Hawaiian struggle. To my friends and supporters concerned over the fact that I will no longer be able to make the same input within OHA that I have over the past years, I suggest that my leaving OH A itself should signal another opportunity for you to assert yourselves more forcefully within OHA rather than to lose interest or confidence in the activities of this organization. Aloha 'Aina.