Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 6, 1 June 1991 — Learning about sovereignty [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Learning about sovereignty

Veteran Wai'anae lawyer and activist Hayden Burgess campaigned for OHA trustee twice, in 1980 when the first board was elected (he lost), and again in 1982 when he won as O'ahu trustee. He ran his campaign on the issue of Hawaiian independence. His agenda, he says, was to "to use OHA as a stepping stone toward internationalizing the issue of Hawaiian sovereignty. Second, of course, was to address the programs for bettering the conditions of the Hawaiians. "I've always said that OHA must afford the step closer to Hawaiian independence," says the intense and articulate former trustee. "OHA itself would never be the independent government or entity, but it could bring us closer to that independence." Burgess, a cousin of fellow trustee and political ally Rod Burgess, made his point from the very start of his term as trustee, when he refused'to take the public oath of office to uphold the constitution and laws of the United States. His action was controversial, and Burgess remembers the shouting and recriminations directed at him during the first board meeting he attended, but he defends his action calmly: "A statement had to be

made right at the very beginning so that my intentiops were clear, so that people would not think I was a hypocrite. So I made a very loud statement at the beginning." Burgess' association with the World Council of Indigenous Peoples, made up of indigenous groups from the Pacific, South Amenea, Central America, North Amenea and Scandinavia who considered themselves to be under colonization, had a profound effect on his outlook. He says he learned that "the struggle for self-determination was a commonality that bound almost all indigenous peoples around the world; and that colonizers, whether they were American or French or what have you, essentially follow the same footprint, stepping over indigenous peoples." Burgess had no authority to represent OHA on the World Council, but he brought back to the Board of Trustees valuable information about organizations and efforts that were similar to OHA's mission to achieve self-determination for the Hawaiian people. Burgess encouraged his fellow trustees to travel and attend meetings of continued page 14

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indigenous and native-rights groups around the globe. Rod Burgess gives his cousin due credit for expanding the other trustees' vision: "He got them thinking that our task was not a lone!y exercise in futility. Hayden showed us that there were other native peoples in the same boat, that there was a course of action we could realistically pursue." Early meetings with Maori leaders in New Zealand and later in Honolulu were especially fruitful. Rod Burgess was impressed by what he learned, and he speaks longingly about the advances in self-determination made by his Polynesian brothers in New Zealand: "In a lot of ways, the Maon people were more advanced than we Hawaiians were, particularly in terms of land claims and native rights. There is a real coexistence of two distinct cultures in New Zealand, Maon and western. The Maon is acknowledged, his rights to the land are acknowledged, his cultural heritage is acknowledged, and every village and town had its own marae, or meeting house, eaeh with its beautiful carvings." The marae is the traditional hub of the Maori community and the symbolic anchor for the native culture. "The Maon," Burgess says, "openly resisted the melting-pot concept, and they did it proudly, with their heads up and lots of support. It was the opposite of what was happening in Hawai'i, where the Hawaiians were hiding. To express that kind of attitude here would have been considered open rebellion."

In late 1981, OHA invited representatives of New Zealand's Department of Maori Affairs to moderate a conference of Hawaiian groups called "E Hawai'i Au," held on the grounds of an estate in Nu'uanu. Later, OHA joined a new organization called the Indigenous Peoples International (IPI) made up of native agencies like OHA including the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, Canada's Department of Indian Affairs, Australia's Office of Aboriginal Affairs and New Zealand's Department of Maori Affairs. As a result of its eommunion with other native peoples OHA became more worldly, with a better perspective on its own goals and plans. According to Trustee Moses Keale, who defines himself as a "conservative" among the trustees, "being exposed to the Indian nations and the South Pacific Commission broadened my perspective on what sovereignty is all about. Before, in my limited view, I thought sovereignty was treason. But now, sovereignty is how one defines it. Basically, it's the right of a people to exist."

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Jose Carlos-Morales (center) of the World Council of lndigenous Peoples meets with OHA trustees in July 1984. With him are Trustees Hayden Burgess (left) and Rod Burgess.