Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 7, 1 July 1988 — Hawaiian Rights Conference Aug. 5-6 [ARTICLE]

Hawaiian Rights Conference Aug. 5-6

The Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (NHLC) will coordinate a Native Hawaiian Rights Conference sponsored by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs on Friday, Aug. 5 and Saturday, Aug. 6, on the Kamehameha Schools campus. This event follows another conference held five years ago whieh dealt with legal problems faced by Hawaiians as an indigenous people. It is also being scheduled to coincide with the publication of a "Handbook on Native Hawaiian Rights" patterned after Felix S. Cohen's "Handbook of Federal Indian Law," draft portions of whieh will be available as resource material. Currently throughout the Pacific, priority attention is being paid to the question of native selfdetermination, as laek of control over land, natural resources and other assets have given rise to the legal problems they daily struggle to resolve. The conceptual framework for the conference includes (1) the presentation of a historical context, including contemporary native struggles; (2) the presentation of information dealing with the Hawaiian Homes and Ceded Lands Trusts; and (3) presentations dealing with different models of self-determination. These presentations will be made by native Hawaiians as well as other indigenous people. The conference will review not only the historical events relating to the Mahele, forced abdication of Queen Lili'uokalani and subsequent annexationist "cession" of Crown and Government lands, but also with contemporary native struggles traceable to these events in history, the issues central to them, and how these struggles have advanced the Hawaiian cause. Community struggles will dramatize and highlight problems relating to substantive legal issues concerning religious rights, water rights, native tenant (ahupua'a and kuleana) rights, shoreline access and fishing rights, etc. Approaches to self-determination will range from American "nation-within-a-nation" to international models. There will be a registration fee of $20 to cover the cost of materials and luneh for the two days. For more information eall 523-8447.