Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 9, Number 5, 1 May 1992 — State hears breach of trust testimony [ARTICLE]

State hears breach of trust testimony

(The following testimony was presented Apnl 2 to the state Senate Committee on Housing and Hawaiian Programs, relating to SCR 226: Recognizing breaches of trust responsibility between the State of Hawai'i and the Hawaiian people and extending a formal apoloau.

The testimong was given by Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustee A. Frenchy DeSoto.) Aloha, Chairman Crozier and members of the committee on housing and Hawaiian programs. Thank you for the opportunity of testifying in favor of Senate Concurrent Resolution 226: recognizing breaches of trust responsibility between the State of Hawai'i and the Hawaiian people and extending a formal apology. In the past, our office and the Hawaiian people would probably have opposed this resolution.

In Hawaiian thought and feeling, ho'oponopono — the formal and sincere process of "making right" — involves more than a simple apology. For there to be true meaning and forgiving there must be the effort to offer restitution and a means of making whole what has been harmed or done wrong.

Now, the state is moving to repair the breaches to the Hawaiian Homes Trust and its beneficiaries, it is appropriate that an apology be offered. Especially for those who experienced the full harm of the last 30 years, those who have waited, whose families saw them die without a homestead, and who even now are afraid to join in the hope and the dream of a repaired and whole trust — especially for them — this apology is needed. Perhaps from the actions whieh the governor and the legislature and the Hawaiian Homes

Commission and director have so conscientiously and diligently pursued in offering redress, we ean also look forward to the healing of the people who were harmed. Just as it is appropriate to apologize and to admit the wrongs of the state, the wholeness of the Hawaiian people will eome only as we are to sincerely forgive — to accept the mihi and to 'oki the harm.

The act of accepting the apology will be individual. It will eome or not eome from those who knew the personal hurt of a betrayed trust. Their decision to accept this apology, however, will have a lasting impact on the entire Hawaiian family. Our strength as a people is to trust our kupuna and their judgement. We trust their heart, and the hearts of those who sponsored this resolution. We urge its passage.