Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 9, Number 1, 1 January 1992 — Panel debates sovereignty issue [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Panel debates sovereignty issue

by Christina Zarobe As the sovereignty movement gains momentum attorney anei Hawaiian activist Mililani Trask urges the puhlie to consider the benefits rather than fear the issue. "I seem to be picking up a lot of eoneem about what sovereignty will mean to people other than Hawaiians," Trask said last month at a conference, "Civil Rights for the People of Hawai'i." "Let's get rid of the paranoia and take a look at what the reality is," she said, noting that "reality" for Hawaiians includes an affordable housing crisis and serious education problems. The two-day conference at the llikai Hotel was sponsored by the Hawai'i Civil Rights Commission, Afro-American Lawyers Association, Na Loio No Na Kanaka (Lawyers for the People of Hawai'i) and the Commission on Persons with Disabilities. A variety of workshops held during the conferenee included racism in Hawai'i, sex discrimination, Affirmative Action and the myth of preferential treatment, labor and civil rights, and employment and housing discrimination. Trask, who is Kia 'Aina or governor of Ka Lahui Hawai'i, a native initiative for self governanee, spoke on a panel entitled "Civil Rights and the Native Hawaiian Community" along with Mahealani Kamau'u, executive director of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., and Williamson Chang, a law professor at Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai'i. According to Trask, Hawai'i residents have expressed eoneem abōut sovereignty, questioning her about the impact on the islands if a legal system and tax policies similar to those adopted by Native Americans are implemented here. An emphatic speaker, Trask disputed claims that Hawaiians are "acting in a separatist way" by supporting sovereignty and pointed out how eommon marriages are between Hawaiians and other nationalities and races. Also executive director of the Gibson Foundation, whieh provides affordable housing for Native Hawaiians on Hawaiian Home Lands, Trask asked that non-Hawaiians instead consider

the hardships Hawaiians have endured over the years. "Consider what it really means to our people after all these years, what it means to be free," she said. Trask acknowledged that among Hawaiians opinions vary on what shape sovereignty should take in the future. She pointed out that while republics have seceded from the Soviet Union in recent weeks, "face it — this is the U.S.A. — secession is not an option." Williamson Chang, who also serves as pnneipal investigator and director of the "Native Hawaiian Water Rights" research project, agreed with Trask, calling sovereignty an issue that makes people "uneasy." People of most nationalities, he said, made the ehoiee to eome to the United States for a variety of reasons such as an oppressive government or eeonomie conditions. Indigenous groups, however, such as Native Hawaiians, Native Americans, Native Alaskans and AfricanAmericans were not given the opportunity to vote or decide on joining the United States, he added. "America is not really a nation. America is a loyalty oath," he told the group. "No one ean truly argue against 'civil rights,' my argument is that it is good for Americans. But those who are Americans against their will should be afforded the right of self-determination first," Chang wrote in a paper for the civil rights conference. Despite the multi-cultural.makeup of the Islands, Chang pointed out that the Hawaiian culture is what is used in advertising to attract tourists. "Hawaiians are a very special people. They have a sense of openness that makes people want to eome back to Hawai'i." Yet the benefits reaped from a booming tourist business rarely trickle down to the Hawaiian people, he noted. Chang said that while the "long-term goal is to reconcile" the issue of sovereignty in the Hawaiian Islands, heated debates are sure to be involved in the search for a solution. "This issue is volatile. It's explosive. No one wants to approach it. But does it have to be?" asked Chang, a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley.

In exploring precisely how sovereignty ean function, Ka Lahui Hawai'i has developed five elements that need to be in plaee to have sovereignty work. One of the points is an "eeonomie basis," according to Trask. Yet "achieving eeonomie self-sufficiency so we ean get off the welfare roles and have personal integrity" as a people should not be viewed as an attempt to deny others of their "entitlements," she added. The other elements of sovereignty Ka Lahui Hawai'i have defined are a "strong and abiding faith in the akua, God; a people with a eommon language, culture and history; a land base; and a government structure, Trask stated. With the 100th anniversary commemorating the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy less than a year away, sovereignty for the Hawaiian people and how it ean be accomplished will garner more media attention and public discussion. But Chang believes the topic should not "insult" anyone. "Don't be offended when Hawaiians get together on their own. It is not an insult but neeessary for a culture that does not have a homeland," he said. The basic concept of an ancestral home, a plaee to return to, is vital for a people and dissatisfaction with the status quo is to be expected, the attorney said. Where in Hawai'i do you go to find the homelands? Where do you go to die if you're elderly?" Chang asked. "Until you create that homeland that all people desire, until you offer that to Hawaiians, why would you expect them to go along with the program?"

Mililani Trask